pileated woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

Making quick work of this tree.

Our largest woodpecker - impressively large bird and very striking in color. And loud in a few ways - one is the laughing cackle of a call, and the other is the hammering sound on various hardwoods and telephone poles that can be heard for hundreds of yards.

Pileated Woodpecker

The largest Woodpecker in North America and, of course, one of my favorites

Another taken at the Corkscrew Crew.

Yesterday I was outside in my yard when suddenly I heard the distinctive drumming of a Pileated Woodpecker very close by. Then I saw this big fella on a power pole on the edge of our property. He spent a lot of time grooming. After I snuck up on him to get a few shots, (he saw me but was totally...

Went for a walk this morning and came across this big fellow clinging to a power pole. He was intermittently drumming on the pole between preening sessions. Guess that's the woodpecker equivalent of calling your girl on the phone whole you're combing your hair. lol

Male and female come to the suet only very rarely; I haven't figured out any pattern or reason.. in fact my first photo of three sightings, but we know they are around-nearby. Not ideal as taken through double-pane glass, but did what I could.

I had heard them, and seen them fly by, but had never had a chance to capture one. I was looking for Warblers and suddenly heard his drumming. I turned and he was no more than 6 feet away from me. I was so excited I almost forgot to use my camera. hahaha :)

Pileated woodpecker feeding a youngster.

Pileated enjoying the sunshine and the berries on the muscadine vine. I'm gonna have to try my hand at making Muscadine wine. I hear it's delicious

This guy started chopping at a tree across the road from our house. The amount of wood these powerful woodies can gouge out of a tree in a short time is amazing. Shot a short video of this bird showing that. http://www.birdforum.tv/action/viewvideo/9709/Pileated_Woodpecker_At_Work/?ref=wonderview

Our Mountain Ash tree was crawling with American Robins, but then this Pileated Woodpecker decided to take over the tree and taste a few berries. When this big woody cam winging in you can believe the robins scattered fast! Taken at full zoom through the double paned glass of our front door.

One of two that were (in my mind) play fighting all around the area. Got a short video of what they were doing over on the Birdforum TV section. http://www.birdforum.tv/action/viewvideo/9579/Pileated_Woodpeckers_At_Play/?ref=wonderview Fun to watch

I found this big guy behind the house.

I seem to have a good sized population of this large woodpecker in my area. You can always tell from afar who it is by its drumming or chopping, and what large holes this bird makes.

Pileated Woodecker. A very rare sight, I usually get to see one of these maybe 2 or 3 times a year, and have never had any luck getting a photo of one. This is what I'd call a borderline lifer for me. This is the first more or less clear shot of one of these birds I have ever gotten. I did get...

Not looking too friendly here

It's Mr. Woody, eating berries from one of our many Sassafras bushes. These bushes grow wild and fast.

This is the female I think The red cap on the male goes past the eye, and there's a red stripe behind his bill. Unless of course this is a juvie?

An immature or a frazzled adult male?