Pileated Woodpecker, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa
Almost seven years ago we had to cut down the crown of this old oak you see in the picture here. The oak was dying and there was a danger that this mighty tree could fall on the house. However, we decided to leave the trunk standing, as a habitat for the many woodpeckers around here and other critters. Today came the final proof that this was a good decision, when this female Pileated Woodpecker landed on the trunk after she had worked already on a couple other places.
The Pileated Woodpecker is here all year long but we still don’t see them very often. Most of the time we can hear their loud calls and see big cavities they carve out at some of the dead trees in our woods. It is the only woodpecker that we have never seen on a suet feeder so far. I guess you can understand my excitement when I discovered this large woodpecker in “killer-morning-light”.