Pileated Woodpecker Excavating a Home

This Pileated Woodpecker, male, is excavating a nesting cavity now high up in a dead tree stub. He was being secretive, understandably so, as he does not want other cavity nesting birds, or predators to find the location. He pecked at the interior wood for a while, then the female came and took a turn. Pileated Woodpeckers are common here on Sanibel Island, FL, but in NH where we are from, it is a rare treat to see one.

Pileated Woodpecker Scaling Signs, Up Close

Pileated Woodpecker's are numerous on Sanibel Island.

We followed this female Pileated Woodpecker one morning.

We saw her scaling bark off Mangrove Trees.

Scaled areas near where she was feeding

She landed and began to pound away at the bark,

striking blows beneath it,

and a large piece of bark fell away.

At one point, we saw her long tongue extended out.

She would poke her bill in at the edges of the scaled bark.

You can see her tongue going beneath the edge of the bark, here

and here,

and in this close-up.

We had an opportunity one morning at the Sanibel Lighthouse park to follow a Pileated Woodpecker. We watched the female in the above photos work over some Mangrove Trees, partially dead from damage done by Hurricane Charley in 2004. She whacked off chunks of bark and at one point we saw a fairly large chunk fall after she struck repeated blows. Later we went to some of the areas she had scaled and felt the bark and found it was tightly adhered to the tree. It was hard for us to pull any off.

One of the great things about digital photography is that you see amazing things when you blow up your photos. Our photos showed the long tongue of this female Pileated that tapers at the tip. How cool is that. Reminds us of seeing the tongues of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds when we watched through our binos as they perched near our feeders in NH. In the Birds of North America Pileated Woodpecker account written by Evelyn L. Bull and Jerome A. Jackson, it says the Pileated, "uses long, extensible, pointed tongue with barbs and sticky saliva to catch and extract ants from tunnels." This female was using her long tongue to poke into the sides of the scaled areas. Intriguing. At one point, we saw some tiny ants going under the bark and wondered if that was what she was getting. What an unusual opportunity we had to witness up-close-and-personal the feeding techniques of this female Pileated Woodpecker. There are independent researchers who are now searching for the similar looking Ivory-billed Woodpecker in LA and trying to determine its presence by distinguishing the type of scaling signs it does from that of the Pileated Woodpecker. Intriguing idea.

Pileated Woodpecker Female Exploding From Nest!

Pileated Woodpecker exchange at the nest. the male arrives and the female explodes out of the hole past him.

then she flies off

to go feed

an he sits in the nest hole guarding the precious eggs, waiting for her to come back.

Pileated Woodpeckers are breeding now on Sanibel, FL. and we have seen several nests. The amazing thing is most of the Pileateds are in the same stage of breeding. They have just completed excavating their nest holes and are laying eggs, from 3-5. They will incubate for about 15 days and then the eggs will hatch. The young will then be fed in the nest for 28-32 days, then leave. 

Breeding information like this, as well as beautiful photos and ID info. is included in our new The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America, now available on amazon and in stores, just ready for spring!

Pileated Woodpecker drumming

Pileated Woodpecker, male

We just had a Pileated Woodpecker drumming on our house. Fortunately, it was on the metal roof so no damage done. Drumming is a woodpecker's way of communicating. Woodpeckers do not sing. Each woodpecker species has their own drumming version. In the case of the Pileated, it is a loud continuous drumming sound, trailing off at the end. Drumming is used in pair communication and territorial encounters. It is so thrilling to see a Pileated up close, we did not mind the drumming!

Pileated Woodpecker Wow Factor!

Pileated Woodpecker, male, head shot, Canon SX 50 HS

Av, 1/50, f 6.5, ISO 400, +1 1/3, 400% digital zoom ratio

This was shot on Auto, 1/100 sec., f6.5, 400% digital zoom ratio, not cropped

Here are the pair

Here is the female, she has a darker eye and no red coming off base of bill.

AV, 1/40 sec., f/6.5, +1, ISO 400, 195% digital zoom ratio

Pileated Woodpeckers were active in our yard this morning. They convened on a dead stub of a palm tree we had deliberately not cut down, it was left for the woodpeckers. A great chance for photography. I used my Canon SX 50 HS camera, the powerful little point-and-shoot superzoom. I tried many different things in terms of shooting with this camera, including Auto setting, Av setting, using standard digital zoom pushed to the 400% limit (the equivalent of 4800mm) and the digital zoom with the 2x teleconverter, as well as adding exposure compensation for this back-lit situation.
What is so addictive about this camera is getting these intimate, close, eyeball shots that give you such an appreciation for the bird. The Wow factor.
P.S. If you want my tips for using this camera, email me. Email address link is at the top right of this blog.
Lillian