On Sunday the dogs bottled a groundhog up under the root ball of an American holly tree. While the dogs were underground baying, a pileated woodpecker got to drumming very near us on a large and hollow log. The sound this bird managed to generate was phenomenal!
The pileated woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in North America (about the size of a crow), and is quite common across the Eastern U.S. The very loud drumming of a pileated woodpecker is used to establish a territory and attract a mate -- an important activity at this time of year. The woodpecker and his mate will stay in the same area all year long, holding a territory much like a fox will.
The pileated woodpecker looks quite a bit like an Ivory Billed woodpecker, which was believed to be extinct until a small remnant population was found in Arkansas last year.
"Pileated," by the way, is just a fancy word for "capped" and refers to the bird's bright red crest. You can tell a pileated woodpecker has been working trees in an area, as the birds will knock out a hole that is shaped like a vertical rectangular slot, almost like a perfect mortise.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment