Looking out the front door I spotted a pair of Pileated woodpeckers on the side of a tree across the street. One of them, a male, flew right at me and landed in a big tree next door. The second stayed on the other side of the street flying from tree to tree.
Within a very short time the female across the street had flown tree to tree down the street and out of sight. These large birds create quite a commotion when they fly through the neighborhood!
(The video focuses quickly after it starts.)
We spotted this female Pileated woodpecker working over a large stump at a cemetery. She worked it for quite a while, and did not take off even when we got much closer. Perhaps she is used to lots of cars and people in the cemetery.
If you’ve seen some of our previous posts, you’ll know that we have been enjoying feeding birds in our backyard. It is always fun to see different birds and to watch the antics of them all. But sometimes we just have to say “Wow! Look at those!”
That time came when a mating pair of Pileated Woodpeckers showed up at our tree with suet feeding stations. The male is on the left, female on the right. (We call them Woody and Wilma) We had seen the female before, but this was our first sighting of the male. And yes, to us, this was a thrilling event!
Sher and I were thrilled a couple of days ago when we saw for just a second a stunning Pileated Woodpecker who came in and landed on our tree. Almost immediately it took off. Yesterday, however, another (maybe the same?) Pileated female came in and ended up feeding from one of the suet cages.
Notice the little Nuthatch that photobombed the video? The size of Wilma seems to have spooked it from the suet cage.
Roadtirement 