Pileated Woodpeckers Hammer

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I have been watching the Pileated Woodpeckers hammer this tree for a few days now. This tree is nearly rotten and appears to be full of beetles. They continue to whittle this tree to eat the beetles.

I have seen two Pileated Woodpeckers on this time at the same time, male and female. Every time I try to sneak up to take pictures of them on this tree they fly away. All of my pictures were blurry so I don’t have a picture to share with you.

You can see a previous post I did on the Pileated Woodpecker last year, click this link Pileated Woodpecker 🙂 Below is a picture that I took last year.

The pileated woodpecker is the largest woodpecker and is very beautiful!

They can really destroy a tree in no time at all.

Enjoy your weekend!

 

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Pileated Woodpeaker

We have a family of Pileated Woodpeckers living near our home. I have seen two adults and three young woodpeckers all summer. I have been trying for nearly two years to get pictures. Usually by the time I spot them and get my camera they are gone or the pictures I get are bad. Well, I finally got one picture.  They are extremely fast, when they land on trees to peck for bugs they hop around the tree trunk making it hard to get pictures.

The Pileated Woodpecker is huge woodpecker, if you have ever seen one you know what I mean. They are the largest woodpecker in the United States coming in at 16 to 19 inches tall with a 29 inch wingspan. Here in northern South Carolina they are abundant. Pileated Woodpeckers are very territorial.

They have a very loud call and it carries far, you can most often hear them calling before you see them. As they peck the trunks of trees retrieving food their drumming on the tree is also very loud and sounds like someone hitting a tree with a hammer. Pileated Woodpeckers will eat mostly insects, they love ants and wood-boring beetle larvae. They will also eat some fruits, nuts and berries. Months ago a popular tree fell and I cut a log about 20 inches long then drilled a bunch of 2 inch holes that I stuff with suet mix just for the woodpecker. I try to keep the squirrels from eating the suet by hanging the log from a tree limb. I have a bunch of other woodpeckers that also eat love the suet.

Out of 14 pictures this was the only one that was good. I will keep trying in hopes to get more shots.

check out my last blog post, Is Today the Day?