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Pileated Woodpecker

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Pileated Woodpecker
(Dryocopus pileatus)

Pileated woodpeckers may be the largest remaining woodpeckers in North America. You’ll find them up high in tall trees, especially dead ones. The drumming sound they make is either announcing territory or drilling holes for food or nests. Carpenter ants are their favorite food.

Description: Length: 17 inches; a crow-sized woodpecker. Black with white neck stripes, conspicuous white wing lining and a prominent red crest. The male has a red "mustache," the female's is black.

Range and Habitat: Resident across much of southern Canada, south in the mountains of northwestern states and in the east to the Gulf Coast states. Lives in mature forests and borders.

Breeding and Maturation: Lays 4 white eggs in a tree cavity.

 

 

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