Pileated woodpecker

, 1585. English naturalist Mark Catesby described and illustrated the pileated woodpecker in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, which was published between 1729 and 1732. Catesby used the English name "The larger red-crested Wood-pecker" and the Latin Picus niger maximus capite rubro. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he included the pileated woodpecker, coined the binomial name Picus pileatus and cited Catesby's book. The specific epithet pileatus is a Latin word meaning "-capped". The type locality is South Carolina. The pileated woodpecker is now one of six species that the International Ornithological Committee and the Clements taxonomy place in genus Dryocopus. The North American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society concurs for the pileated and lineated woodpeckers, the only two of the six that occur in Central and North America. However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) places the pileated and several others in genus Hylatomus. The genus Dryocopus was introduced by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie in 1826. Outram Bangs observed in 1898 that enough morphological differences existed between the two types of pileated woodpeckers to classify the northern pileated woodpecker as its own subspecies. They are found in southern Canada south through the western, north-central, and northeastern United States. • Southern pileated woodpecker (D. p. pileatus): They are found in the Southeastern United States. ==Description==

'' by John James Audubon, depicting pileated woodpeckers (1 ♀, 3 ♂♂) 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 long, span across the wings, and weigh . The average weight of females and males combined is about , with males weighing about and females weighing about in mean body mass. The wing chord measures , the tail measures , the bill is , and the tarsus measures . Southern pileated woodpeckers have ebony feathers, less white on the feathers by the wings, and are smaller in overall size compared to their northern counterparts. Northern pileated woodpeckers are larger in wing, tail, and beak size. Two species found in the Old World, the white-bellied woodpecker (D. javensis) and black woodpeckers (D. martius), are closely related and occupy the same ecological niche in their respective ranges that the pileated occupies in North America. 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. ==Distribution and habitat==

The pileated woodpecker's breeding habitat is forested areas across Canada, the eastern United States, and parts of the Pacific Coast. This bird favors mature forests and heavily wooded parks. They specifically prefer mesic habitats with large, mature hardwood trees, often being found in large tracts of forest. However, they also inhabit smaller woodlots as long as they have a scattering of tall trees. These woodlots are known as late-successional forests. The pileated woodpecker population shrank drastically in the 1700s and 1800s due to habitat loss, but they have since made a nice recovery. ==Behavior==

Foraging Pileated woodpeckers often chip out large and roughly rectangular holes in trees while searching out insects, especially ant colonies. They may also forage around the sides of human homes, cars, and suet-type feeders. Although they are less likely feeder visitors than smaller woodpeckers, pileateds may regularly be attracted to them in areas experiencing harsh winter conditions. Breeding behavior Pileated woodpeckers engage in many courtship displays such as drumming, bill waving and "woick" calls to try to get a mate or to communicate with a pre-existing one. Once the birds have found a mate, they typically stay together for life. In early spring, the woodpecker pair begins to make the hole, and work continues on it throughout the season. The cavity is unlined except for wood chips. During the process of picking the nest site and making the hole, the pair uses tapping as a primary form of communication. Sometimes, pileated woodpeckers start making a nest, then abandon it and build a new nest elsewhere, but this spot can be revisited in the future to finish creating the nest. both parents incubate them for 12 to 16 days. The average clutch size is four per nest. The young may take a month to fledge. Once the brood is raised, the birds abandon the hole and do not use it as a nesting site the next year, especially since most nesting sites are built in places structurally unfit for another breeding season. However, if this does not happen, these holes—made similarly by all woodpeckers—provide good homes in future years for many forest songbirds and a wide variety of other animals. Owls and tree-nesting ducks may largely rely on holes made by pileateds to lay their nests. Even mammals such as raccoons may use them. Other woodpeckers and smaller birds, such as wrens, may be attracted to pileated holes to feed on the insects found in them. Ecologically, the entire woodpecker family is important to the well-being of many other bird species. Territorial behavior A pileated woodpecker pair stays together on its territory all year round and is not migratory. They defend the territory in all seasons, but tolerate floaters during the winter. When defending their nest from either rival conspecifics or from other species, the female is more involved. Predation Predators at the nest can include American and Pacific martens, weasels, squirrels, rat snakes, and gray foxes. These predators usually wait for the woodpeckers to leave the nest and attack the nestlings or try to trap the birds and/or the nestlings in the nest. The woodpecker usually uses intimidation displays involving rapid head motions and wing flapping, and if those failed, then would try to strike the attacker with its bill. The woodpecker may choose to relocate the nest after an encounter like this to avoid repeat attacks from the same predator. Free-flying adults have fewer predators, but can be taken in some numbers by Cooper's hawks, northern goshawks, red-shouldered hawks, red-tailed hawks, great horned owls, bald eagles, golden eagles, and barred owls. These birds of prey attempt to ambush the woodpecker mid-flight to catch it by surprise and to minimize the threat of being hit by the woodpecker's powerful bill. Additionally, the woodpecker can fly in unpredictable patterns to evade capture or can use its beak to fend off these birds. ==Status==

The pileated woodpecker occupies an extensive range and is quite adaptable. Its ability to survive in many wooded habitat types, such as suburban areas with trees and/or parks, has allowed the species to survive human habitation of North America and contradicts the original belief that these woodpeckers needed large swaths of forests to survive. Additionally, efforts to restore woodland by removing invasive honeysuckle and buckthorn seem to benefit them, as the removal of brush and shrubbery facilitates their foraging on the ground and in lower strata. Overall, pileated woodpeckers have a large population size, with 2.6 million estimated to be living in North America, but this number is growing. Despite being nonmigratory, they are protected under the U.S. Migratory Bird Act. While the large birds control many insect populations, especially tree beetles, that may otherwise experience outbreaks, some people may consider them harmful if found on their property due to the considerable damage that pileated woodpeckers can do to trees and homes. Additionally, they have also been seen making nesting holes in newly placed telephone poles, which often causes significant structural damage to the poles, prompting investments in strategies to mitigate woodpecker damage. ==Cultural references==

Cartoonist Walter Lantz is believed to have based the appearance of his creation Woody Woodpecker on the pileated woodpecker; while patterning the call on the acorn woodpecker. ==Gallery==

File:Pileated-at-platform-feeder.jpg|Male on a platform feeder File:PileatedWoodpeckerOnLog1.jpg|Adult female at an ant-infested log File:PileatedWoodpeckerPair.jpg|Mating pair File:Pileated Woodpecker eating suet.ogv|Male eating suet File:PileatedWoodpeckerNest.jpg|Female chicks peeking from nest cavity File:Pileated Woodpecker!, crop.jpg|Male in flight File:Tree damage from a pileated woodpecker.jpg|Damage to a tree by a pileated woodpecker searching for bugs, a cavity roughly 3' tall, 4-6" wide, and 8" deep (90×10-15×20 cm) File:20240227 pileated woodpecker keeney cove PD200574.jpg|Female, Glastonbury, CT USA ==References==