Northwoods Journal: Pileated Woodpecker's Winter Frolic

    Northern Lights Lodge & Resort
                         On Beautiful Bear Island Lake
                                               Ely, Minnesota

Pileated Woodpecker's Winter Frolic

Sitings of the Pileated Woodpecker are fairly common here at Northern Lights Lodge throughout most of the year. With the warm weather and the approaching spring season they are more active than ever. Startled by a crash against the Lodge, I went to investigate and discovered two Pileated Woodpeckers that appeared to be roughhousing. They both seemed fine and none worse for the collision so the girls and I took break to watch their performance.

It looked like two juvenile males tap dancing around each other as they leapt from the ground onto the base of the trees. Once on a tree they would walk the bark circling the tree repeating.

If one paused, they other paused. They would each tilt their heads listening for their opponent on the other side and then ever so slowly attempt to peak around the corner to see their sparing partner.Usually, they peaked in the opposite direction never seeing the other.

When they did get face to face or beak to beak in this case, they sparred at each other with their long beaks tapping away at each other.

They were never concerned with my presences as I followed along behind them at a distance of about 6 feet. It was a challenge getting snapshots of them because they were constantly on the move.

The Pileated Woodpecker:

This speicies in the largest Woodpecker in North America with a mostly black body and white wing linings which are visible in flight. The head has a prominent red crest and cap, white face and neck stripes and a red moustache stripe, and large gray bill. Legs and feet are grayish black.

These birds dig rectangular holes in trees to find ants. These excavations can be so large and deep that they can cause small trees to break in half. This past week the Woodpeckers excavated over halfway through a large pine that appeared to be healthy, but was actually hollow and rotted inside. The largest hole was nearly 12" tall with a series of smaller holes along each side.

They will make up to 16 holes in each tree to provide themselves with escape routes should a predator enter the tree. They peck the bark around the entrance holes to make the sap run from the tree. This will keep some predators, such as snakes, from entering.

A group of pileated woodpeckers is called a "crown" of woodpeckers.

Pileateds mainly eat insects beetle larvae and carpenter ants. They also enjoy fruits, berries and nuts.

They often chip out large and roughly rectangular holes in trees while searching out insects.

The call is described as a wild laugh, similar to the Northern Flicker (also found here at the Lodge).

Its drumming can be very loud and sounds like someone striking a tree with a hammer while they chisel away at the side of the trees. This bird favors mature forests, but has adapted to use second-growth stands and heavily wooded parks as well.