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I was out hiking at Starved Rock State Park (IL) on Friday and happen upon this:
So what did this tell me? No chewing at the base of the tree so it wasn't a beaver (that and the fact it was a dead tree). As I looked up this is what I saw:
Now these were large holes, not something your everyday woodpecker would do. So do you know what made them? I did and while I have seen them many times in the woods or along the road side I have never gotten a picture of one. Many years back of course I didn't carry a camera so that really doesn't count, but the last years I often have my camera with me but getting close enough to get a picture has eluded me.

This is a male, comb on the back of the head tells you that, and they are about 18" tall so a large bird, and they make a sound much like a person hammering so you know when they are around by that as well, but they are shy so getting as close as I did was really cool.
What I like about this picture is that it looks like he is leaning back on that small branch. This big guy is called a Pileated Woodpecker. There were two of them, both males so I got my thrill for this walk this way.

Ed

Great pic and it brings back some memories. We used to regularly have one or two of these living in our backyard. Then we (and on one occasion the wind) took down a number of trees that they had bored into (just like in your photos). Now it is rarer for me to see them up close. They are beautiful birds for sure!

Nice pictures. Thanks for sharing them.

And amazingly Ed, I didn't feel a thing!

Forrest

Yeah! The forest reible was in only had one "r". But beautiful photos!!!

Now I have no idea what you are talking about, I see no extra "r" in my posts.

Learned that the new software here allows you to fix some things that the previous software would not.

Of course I can't fix everyone "r" problem just mine.

Ed

It's all fixed now, ED! (or 3D ) Don't know how you come across so many chances for beautiful photos,but you do and always seem to grab the opportunity. Nice Work

reible wrote:I was out hiking at Starved Rock State Park (IL) on Friday and happen upon this:

IMG_6154sc.jpg

So what did this tell me? No chewing at the base of the tree so it wasn't a beaver (that and the fact it was a dead tree). As I looked up this is what I saw:

IMG_6153sc.jpg

Now these were large holes, not something your everyday woodpecker would do. So do you know what made them? I did and while I have seen them many times in the woods or along the road side I have never gotten a picture of one. Many years back of course I didn't carry a camera so that really doesn't count, but the last years I often have my camera with me but getting close enough to get a picture has eluded me.

This is a male, comb on the back of the head tells you that, and they are about 18" tall so a large bird, and they make a sound much like a person hammering so you know when they are around by that as well, but they are shy so getting as close as I did was really cool.

IMG_6071sc.jpg

What I like about this picture is that it looks like he is leaning back on that small branch. This big guy is called a Pileated Woodpecker. There were two of them, both males so I got my thrill for this walk this way.

Ed

What we call pileated woodpeckers here in Florida are much larger birds with very long skinny necks.
I had one tear into a beetle infested pine tree in the back yard. He threw pieces of the wood/bark the size of a man's hand about 20 feet or more from the base of the tree.
Seriously it looked like some kind of war was fought around the tree.

Also when wood peckers like the one you pictured come to our feeder I noticed they can not stand on the perch instead they hang from it but are large enough to get their fill of seed. I think they are so use to hanging on the side of a the tree they use their tail or a limb behind them to hold them upright.

We had two woodpeckers strip every inch of bark off another dead pine tree in less than two days. The tree was about 2 feet in dia and about 80 feet tall. I raked up a lot of the pine bark for mulch. They were like a machine made for the job. Around and around they went. Started about half way up and one went up and the other went down. They stayed on opposite sides of the tree so they didn't get hit with saw dust. I was a riot to watch.

This one while the picture might not show it was I would say 18" or so tall. They are a big bird, much larger then the other woodpeckers we have in my neck of the woods.

Here is a link to some information about them. It would appear from the map that you and I have the same versions but maybe they are a little bigger the farther south you go???

http://www.birds-of-north-america.net/p ... ecker.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pileated_woodpecker

Ed

There is difference, there are 4 subspecies
Southern pileated woodpecker (D. p. pileatus) – the southeastern U.S., except Florida.
Northern pileated woodpecker (D. p. abieticola) – Distributed from the Canadian Prairies provinces east through Eastern Canada and the northern United States.
Florida pileated woodpecker (D. p. floridanus) –the Florida peninsula and Florida Keys.
Western pileated woodpecker (D. p. picinus) – western North America.
Wikipedia
All are about the size of a crow. Ours has a skinner neck and more body.

The ones around my house and their smaller buddies love to wake me up by drumming on the aluminum drip edge around the roof. I get to hear them about once or twice a week for a couple weeks then they move to another neighbors house. It sounds like a machine gun at 5 or 6 in the morning. Went to get the paper the other day and heard a smaller specie drumming on the neighbor house.

When I lived up north I never saw a woodpecker except for one my hunting buddy shoot thinking it was a pheasant.(never hunted with him again) but I did see a lot of holes they made.

However here in Florida they are very common and as I mentioned have some annoying habits.