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Project Noah Nature School
Dryocopus pileatus
The largest of the North American Woodpeckers. Body is mostly black with a red crest. Males crest starts from the forehead and has a red mustache. The females crest starts above the forehead and doesn't have the red mustache. \ Both have a black stripe across the eyes and from the side of the head (except for the female which starts at the bill) and down the neck to the throat. Bill is long and thick. The young are ready to fledge so the parents don't spend much time at the nest and feed them less often to get them to come out.
The tongue of these woodpeckers are about 6 inches long with barbed ends to fish out bugs in the holes they drill.
mix woodland
Spotted on Jun 1, 2014
Submitted on Jun 2, 2014
18 Comments
Thank you Frederic
Great spotting!
Thank you
If you are looking for White-headed Woodpeckers, go to Big Bear lake, CA. They are all over the dead ponderosa pines there.
Thank you Juan and Gary
Amazing spot, congrats Jellis
No problem. Great spotting.
Thank you JoshuaGSmith.
I would like to announce Jellis's Pileated Woodpecker as 2nd place in our mission-wide photo contest. Congratulations!
I still have many on my list to find. Ladder-back, White-headed and Williamson's.
Thank you. This was a surprise to see on the side of the road. I thought I would have to go further north or east to find one and deep in the forests.
Wow! What a cool spotting. It's really hard to find an uncommon bird on the edge of its range. You have eliminated 1 of 3 species left in the Southwest.
Thank you Maria. I've always wanted to see one, but they are hard to pinpoint. But with this nest site knew I would find one at least. Female was somewhere but didn't see her.
LOVE this series! What a great capture for your first time seeing this species!
Thank you doreen.
How lovely.
Thank you Hema, this is the first time I spotted one.
Spectacular series!! Congrats for a job well done!