Pileated and a Birch Tree

[Marc St Louis]

There is this Birch tree across the road from us that has had a Pileated working on it all Winter.  The tree is at least 16" across at the butt and it's still alive, although slowly dying.  There is a large branch coming out on the road side that extends to past half way across the road.  You can see in this picture that he has pecked a line that is easily to the core of the tree, some 4~5 inches wide and maybe 10' long, you can see him above the scar working on the tree.  That tree will wind up on the road, just hope it's not on top of a car as it's going by.

[bushboy]

They are very neat looking birds,almost prehistoric looking.albeit a bit shy and hard to get a close up shot of!

[JEB]

They are tearing up my Poplar trees. I must have 6 large ones that are dieing because of the wood peckers. Not sure what to do about this.

[Marc St Louis]

They are indeed neat looking.  We had one that would come up our suet feeder right next to the window.  They have massive claws and their red top doesn't even look like feathers

If Woodpeckers are on your trees then it's because they have bugs in them and it's the bugs that are killing the trees, of course the large holes in the trees don't help

[BowEd]

I wish there was a mating pair of pileated woodpeckers here myself.I've never seen one.Their suppose to be the biggest.There are a few pair in the state but not around me here.We got the red headed/red bellied/and the flicker.All three dwarfed by the size of those pileated woodpeckers.They got a crazy screech to them?Each woodpecker here has his own form of language sounding different than each other here.These wood peckers here eat a lot of black ants for sure.Most grab seeds and wedge them into the bark of a tree too for a snack later I guess.If you manage to get a good pic of those pileated woodpeckers I'd love to see them.
You might have some maintenance to do with that tree in the future Marc.Good firewood anyway right?

[Chippintuff]

I had some of those wood peckers when i lived just north of Tyler, TX. They are beautiful. Their cackles can be heard for a mile. Though they frequently came to check my pecan trees out, I never saw one of them do any damage, and since the trees were young, there was no dead wood on them.

WA

[upstatenybowyer]

I always thought they flew south in the winter Marc. In the summer we've got dozens on our property, but I've never seen one in the winter. I just started seeing/hearing them again about a week ago.

[Marc St Louis]

They stay year round here. 

They can sure take a dead tree apart pretty quick.  This what is at the base of tree

[PaulN/KS]

The first one that I ever saw was back in the mid-80's when I lived in Northern Michigan. I've seen them in Oklahoma too. Very impressive bird to watch.

[BowEd]

I dare bet money a pileated can tear a rotten tree apart fairly quick.Many of the dead snags I cut up for firewood here are full of holes too from the woodpeckers here.Most times I will leave most snags standing for something for the woodpeckers to do....lol.
Side note....I like watching them at the bird feeder.We've got a bully of a bird called a blue jay that pushes his way around to most birds here,but not these wood peckers.

[Marc St Louis]

We use a small platform when we feed the birds suet in the Winter and you can easily tell the difference between a Hairy and a Pileated just by the sound.  When the Pileated lands it's a thump that can be heard from the other side of the house and their pecking is quite slow and loud

[bushboy]

The peckers around here like to hammer on eaves troughs and sattelite dishes,kinda annoying early in the morning!

[BowEd]

The red headed here has almost the same type call as the pileated.The red headed's  thumping is a fast sticato type.Whle the downies and flickers are a slow thumping type.Downies aggravate us by thumping on tin on steel roofs.Makes quite a racket and heard inside the house.Not much call sounds out of a downie though.
The numbers of pileated are few here in Iowa.They say they are a wary needing more privacy type bird.

[Marc St Louis]

The peckers around here like to hammer on eaves troughs and sattelite dishes,kinda annoying early in the morning!

They do that here as well and it's the Yellow Bellied Sapsucker that is the culprit

Here is a picture I took of a Pileated that was feeding on a suet ball.  They are quite comical as they think they see something in the window and cock their heads back and forth glaring with their big eyes to see better.  The plate is 12" across

[Hawkdancer]

Definitely one big woodpecker.  I haven't seen one live since I was in high school, then only id'd it from a picture in my doctor's office.  They went pretty rare for quite q while.  If I remember correctly, they are the largest of the woodpeckers, and the Ivory billed is next.  Neat picture!
Hawkdancer