11:58 p.m. - 2005-08-18
Pileated Woodpecker *New Pic 12/2/07*
Hello! Happy Thursday to everyone!
I mentioned a long time ago my backyard pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) sighting. But a few weeks ago in my WI hometown, I witnessed two of these big birds up close!
Still weary from my wild weekend in Green Bay, I was spending a night en famille, when I heard a crow-like call in the backyard. But like, a crazy crow. And I saw the giant woodpecker in our maple tree!
This is one of the rare creatures that I did NOT KNOW EVEN EXISTED until this year. I'm sorry to even admit that.
But I was familiar with the red-headed woodpecker, and the spotted woodpecker. All woodpeckers are members of the Order Piciformes, which includes flickers too.
But woodpeckers have been in the news this spring, as the ivory-billed woodpecker, thought to be excinct, was rediscovered in LA! Apparently this white-billed species looks much like the pileated woodpecker, except the former is even larger.
These giant birds live on the eastern half of the U.S., up along the Canadian provinces, and back down WA, OR and northern Cali. They like pine trees and open forests, but obviously can be seen around populated vectors also.
Pileated woodpeckers grow up to nineteen inches tall! They're black, with a white stripe down their body, and a red head. Males have a completely red crest and head, while females have a black forehead.
As you can imagine, a twenty inch tall bird can totally f*ck up a tree! Pileated woodpeckers can peck out holes up to eight inches wide and two feet deep! (Apparently my Dad enjoys watching this hole-pecking while he is hunting from his deer stand.)
Thankfully the woodpeckers mostly peck dead trees or ones dying from a fungal infection. Inside the trees they find yummy things like carpenter ants, beetle larvae and other insectoids. Pileated woodpeckers also like to eat fruit and nuts sometimes.
Of course the woodpeckers build nests in their self-made highrises. They lay three to five eggs, which hatch in fifteen to eighteen days. Mama woodpecker watches them during the day, daddy at night! After 28 days the babies are flying.
To protect the woodpecker family, the birds poke holes in the tree bark, which causes sap to leak out. I guess this makes the hole unattractive to snakes, which are a main woodpecker enemy.
I tried to do research as to why pileated (and I guess ivory billed) woodpeckers are so much huger than all other woodpeckers. All I could find out is that the Piciformes Order started out with other early birds back in the Eocene period, 54 to 38 million years ago. These early peckers enjoyed the tropical areas in the new and old world. But it seems the the last ice age rearranged and killed off some species, making Piciformes the only group living in temperate regions.
Woodpeckers were revered by ancient cultures. Their carved images and feathers were found in Mississippian native culture. Woodpeckers might have been sacred because of their red heads, symbolizing fire and the power of the sun. In Creek, Seminole and Cherokee cultures pileated woodpecker scalps were considered a sign of war.
All right, I guess that's all for now. I really hope you all get to see a pilated woodpecker sometime! Let me know where you find them around the metro. And like, don't step to me with no pileated woodpecker scalps, yo!
Peckity-peck,
Wendell!
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