About the Pileated Woodpecker
The pileated woodpecker is a large, crow-sized woodpecker with a prominent red crest, white neck stripe, and a mostly black body. This woodpecker is native to North America, where it is the largest confirmed extant woodpecker species and the third-largest extant species of woodpecker in the world, after the great slaty woodpecker and the black woodpecker. It inhabits deciduous forests in eastern North America, the Great Lakes, the boreal forests of Canada, and parts of the Pacific Coast. This woodpecker is primarily an insectivore, eating insects that live in trees; it is famous for making large, nearly rectangular carvings into trees, which are used to extract prey inside the tree or to…
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ID tip
Pileated woodpeckers are mainly black with a red crest and have a white line down the sides of the throat. Adult males have a red line from the bill to the throat; in adult females, these are black. They also have white wing feathers that show when in flight. 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.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What the Pileated Woodpecker sounds like
Where it lives
When to see it
Peak activity in May · a resident species across most of its range
Easily confused with
Black WoodpeckerDryocopus martiusThe black woodpecker measures 45 to 55 cm (18 to 22 in) long with a 64 to 84 cm (25 to 33 in) wingspan.
Lineated WoodpeckerDryocopus lineatusThe lineated woodpecker is 31.5 to 36 cm (12.4 to 14.2 in) long.
White-bellied WoodpeckerDryocopus javensisThis species is one of the largest living species of woodpecker.
Side by side: Black Woodpecker vs Pileated Woodpecker · Lineated Woodpecker vs Pileated Woodpecker
Learn the Pileated Woodpecker for real
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