Pileated Woodpecker

Dryocopus pileatus

Crow-sized hammer with a flaming red crest. Leaves rectangular holes in trees the size of mailboxes.

Population: ~2.6 million mature individuals (North America; 95% CI 2.4-2.9 million per BirdLife/IUCN 2024 assessment), population increasing
Habitat: Mature deciduous and coniferous forests with large dead trees and downed logs; also suburban woodlots and second-growth forest with enough big trees; per BirdLife, occupies boreal, temperate, and subtropical/tropical dry forest types plus some urban/rural areas from sea level to 2,300 m
Fun fact: The Pileated Woodpecker excavates large, distinctively rectangular holes in dead trees while foraging for carpenter ants, and these abandoned cavities are later reused as nest or shelter sites by owls, tree-nesting ducks, swifts, and even raccoons and bats.
Range: Eastern North America (Great Lakes region, Appalachians, Southeast), across the Canadian boreal forest, and a separate population along the Pacific Coast (British Columbia to Northern California); largely non-migratory, year-round resident. BirdLife gives an extent of occurrence of ~13.4 million km2 across Canada and the USA.
Diet: Primarily carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle larvae excavated from dead wood; also eats other insects, wild fruits (including poison ivy berries), nuts, and berries, and will visit suet feeders
Size: 0.44 m
Wingspan: 0.7 m
Lifespan: 13 years

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