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Pileated Woodpecker
Conservation status
Least Concern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Piciformes Family: Picidae Genus: Dryocopus Species: D. pileatus
Binomial name
Dryocopus pileatus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) is a very large North American woodpecker.

Adults (40-49 cm long, 250-350 g weight) are mainly black with a red crest and a white line down the sides of the throat. Adult males have a red line from the bill to the throat and red on the front of the crown. In adult females, these are black. They show white on the wings in flight. The only North American birds of similar plumage and size are the Ivory-billed Woodpecker of the Southeastern United States and Cuba, and the related Imperial Woodpecker of Mexico. Both of those species are extremely rare, if not extinct.

White wing linings

Their breeding habitat is forested areas with large trees across Canada, the eastern United States and parts of the Pacific coast. They usually excavate large nests in the cavities of dead trees, and often excavates a new home each year, creating habitat for other large cavity nesters.

This bird is usually a permanent resident.

These birds mainly eat insects (especially beetle larvae and carpenter ants) as well as fruits, berries and nuts. They often chip out large and roughly rectangular holes in trees while searching out insects.

The call is a wild laugh, similar to the Northern Flicker. Its drumming can be very loud, often sounding like someone striking a tree with a hammer. This bird favors mature forests, but has adapted to use second-growth stands and heavily wooded parks as well.

The Pileated Woodpecker was the model for the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker.

A male Pileated Woodpecker at a suet feeder.	A male Pileated Woodpecker on a tree.	A male Pileated Woodpecker on a platform feeder.	A male Pileated Woodpecker feeding a juvenile by regurgitation.
Juvenile female Pileated Woodpecker	Mature female pileated woodpecker.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Dryocopus pileatus

• BirdLife International (2004). Dryocopus pileatus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
• Interesting Pileated Woodpecker Facts donated by BirdHouses101.com
• Birdchat archives--lists "Lord God Bird" as folk name for this species

• Pileated Woodpecker Facts and Photos - NatureMapping Program
• Pileated Woodpecker videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Stamps