Pileated Woodpecker

The pileated woodpecker is one of the largest woodpeckers in North America, found in mature forests across much of the continent, easily identified by its striking black body, white stripes on the face and neck, and a flaming red crest. It excavates large, distinctively rectangular holes in dead and dying trees while searching for its main prey, carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle larvae, using its powerful bill to hammer through wood with force that can be heard from a considerable distance. The species relies on standing dead timber for both feeding and nesting, and its abandoned nest holes are later used as shelter by many other forest animals, including owls, ducks and mammals. Once reduced by logging of old-growth forest, pileated woodpecker populations have recovered in many areas as forests have regrown.