Where do pileated woodpeckers live?
They can be found in Canada and in western Washington all the way down to northern parts of California and most areas of the eastern United States. Click the range map to learn more about the distribution of Pileated Woodpeckers in Washington.
Is pileated woodpecker rare?
Pileated Woodpeckers are fairly common and numerous, and their populations have steadily increased from 1966 to 2019, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.
What is the territorial range of a pileated woodpecker?
about 130 to 400 acresUnlike most of our birds, which only defend a territory during nesting, Pileateds hold territories year-round. Territory size ranged from about 130 to 400 acres in one study done in Missouri; while in an Oregon study, territories defended by mated pairs averaged an astounding 1,000 acres!
Do pileated woodpeckers stay in the same area?
A Pileated Woodpecker pair stays together on its territory all year round. It will defend the territory in all seasons, but will tolerate new arrivals during the winter.
How do I attract pileated woodpeckers to my yard?
Five Proven Ways to Attract Pileated Woodpeckers to Your YardOffer food They Prefer. Male pileated woodpecker enjoying suet. ... Avoid clearing dead, dying, or fallen trees. ... Plant fruit-bearing trees & shrubs. ... Have Water Available. ... Hang a nesting box.
What does it mean when you see a pileated woodpecker?
Native American cultures believed that woodpeckers represent the journey into astral planes and that it is the symbol of prophets and messengers between worlds. Seeing a Pileated woodpecker in your dreams could mean greater fertility or productivity.
Where do pileated woodpeckers go in the winter?
Pileated woodpeckers are the opposite: in the winter, each woodpecker excavates its own hole and roosts by itself. The male woodpecker often uses the same hole used for nesting; the young birds have already dispersed by winter. The pileated woodpecker is an important species in many different forest ecosystems.
What is the biggest woodpecker in the United States?
Pileated WoodpeckerA big, dashing bird with a flaming crest, the largest woodpecker in North America (except the Ivory-bill, which is almost certainly extinct). Excavating deep into rotten wood to get at the nests of carpenter ants, the Pileated leaves characteristic rectangular holes in dead trees.
How large is a woodpeckers territory?
Their territories range in size from 43 ha (Tanner 1942) to 70 ha (Kilham 1976) in southern deciduous-coniferous forests, to as much as 450 ha in northwestern coniferous forests (Mellen 1987).
Where do pileated woodpeckers sleep at night?
Biologists have learned that roosting pileated woodpeckers do not sleep on the bottoms of their roosting sites. To the contrary, they sleep perched upright clutching on to the interior side of the roost site with their bills neatly tucked beneath a wing.
Are pileated woodpeckers aggressive?
During the breeding season they're aggressive to everyone, especially the cavity-nesters. They persecute northern flickers, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers. If a starling dares to take a red-headed's nest hole the woodpecker fights and wins. Even the pileated woodpecker defers to this bird.
Where do woodpeckers go at night?
Most woodpeckers roost in tree cavities, either ones they've used as nest holes or sometimes ones they've chiseled out just for sleeping. Lots of birds roost in tree cavities, or really any hole or covered area, for that matter.
General Description
Habitat and Range
- Death and decay mean survival for pileated woodpeckers. Snags, logs, and weakened live trees provide the soft wood inhabited by carpenter ants, a favorite food. Pileated woodpeckers also need trees big enough to contain the large nest cavities they excavate. Old-growth forest meets these habitat needs, and Douglas-fir, especially in western Oregon,...
Diet and Behavior
- With their stout, chisel-like beaks, pileated woodpeckers dig for ants and wood-boring beetle larvae deeper than most other woodpeckers can reach, past the tree’s cambium (thin layer of living, growing tissue). They also glean (pick) insects off branches and scale bark off trees in search of food. Fruit from serviceberry and Oregon grape is sometimes on the menu, as well as …
Reproduction
- Pairs mate for life and produce one summer brood. Courtship begins in early spring with head swinging, drumming, wing spreading displays, and crest raising. Both sexes help build a new nest cavity each year, typically in a dead or decaying tree. The opening averages 9 cm (3.5 in) wide, though it can be larger, and may reach 66 cm (24 in) deep. If you come across a relatively large, …
Ecology
- Thanks to pileated woodpeckers, many forest animals have a place to shelter overnight and nest! Secondary cavity nesters, like small owls, ducks, bats, and flying squirrels, who cannot build their own nests, rely on abandoned cavities excavated by primary cavity nesters, like the pileated woodpecker. Large cavity nesters, like fishers (large weasels), are especially dependent on spaci…
Conservation
- While increased protection for decadent older forests has stabilized Pacific Northwest populations, Audubon climate change modelsproject a northward shift for this species.
Learn More
- Calls and drumming: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/sounds Was Woody Woodpecker a pileated? https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101665227 Download a pdf of this article. Prepared by Sonya Daw NPS Klamath Inventory & Monitoring Network Southern Oregon Universi…
Overview
The pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) is a large, mostly black woodpecker native to North America. An insectivore, it inhabits deciduous forests in eastern North America, the Great Lakes, the boreal forests of Canada, and parts of the Pacific Coast. It is the largest extant woodpecker species in North America, with the possible exception of the ivory-billed woodpecker, which the …
Status
The pileated woodpecker occupies a large range and is quite adaptable. Its ability to survive in many wooded habitat types has allowed the species to survive human habitation of North America much better than the more specialized ivory-billed woodpecker. Pileated woodpeckers have a large population size, and despite being nonmigratory, are protected under the U.S. Migratory Bird Act. While the large birds control many insect populations, especially tree beetles…
Taxonomy
The English naturalist Mark Catesby described and illustrated the pileated woodpecker in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands which was published between 1729 and 1732. Catesby used the English name "The larger red-crested Wood-pecker" and the Latin Picus niger maximus capite rubro. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he included the pileated woodpecker, coined the binomial …
Description
Adults are 40 to 49 cm (16 to 19 in) long, span 66 to 75 cm (26 to 30 in) across the wings, and weigh 225 to 400 g (7.9 to 14.1 oz). The average weight of females and males combined is about 277 g (9.8 oz), with males weighing about 300 g (11 oz) and females weighing about 256 g (9.0 oz) in mean body mass. The wing chord measures 21.4 to 25.3 cm (8.4 to 10.0 in), the tail measu…
Distribution and habitat
The pileated woodpecker's breeding habitat is forested areas across Canada, the eastern United States, and parts of the Pacific Coast. This bird favors mature forests and heavily wooded parks. They specifically prefer mesic habitats with large, mature hardwood trees, often being found in large tracts of forest. However, they also inhabit smaller woodlots as long as they have a scattering of tall trees. Efforts to restore woodland by removing invasive honeysuckle and buckth…
Behavior and ecology
Pileated woodpeckers mainly eat insects, especially carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle larvae. They also eat fruits, nuts, and berries, including poison ivy berries. Pileated woodpeckers often chip out large and roughly rectangular holes in trees while searching out insects, especially ant colonies. They also lap up ants by reaching with their long tongues into crevices. They are self-assure…
Cultural references
Cartoonist Walter Lantz is believed to have based the appearance of his creation, Woody Woodpecker on the pileated woodpecker; while patterning the call on the acorn woodpecker.
See also
• Ivory-billed woodpecker
• Black woodpecker
• Great slaty woodpecker
• Imperial woodpecker