Pileated Woodpecker

Here's a cool bird to encounter: the Pileated Woodpecker. Though I don't see them a lot, they're so large and distinctive that I always know exactly who they are. They're easily the largest woodpecker in my area, and they have the drumming strength beyond most of our woodpeckers. If you hear woodpecker drumming and think "wow that's loud", there's a non-trivial chance that a Pileated Woodpecker was behind that sound.

This particular Pileated Woodpecker is a female. You can tell by the head:

  1. The red on the top of the head doesn't extend all the way from the front to the back, instead just being red past the eyes.
  2. There is no red "mustache" below the eyes.

May 17, 2022 at the Plainsboro Preserve
Photo 199522249, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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