Pileated Woodpecker

A female pileated woodpecker on a large Douglas Fir.

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If you look at a range map for the pileated woodpecker, you will see that it does not extend into southern and eastern Idaho. That made it a surprise then when last fall, one appeared in our yard in Island Park. However, several friends reported having pileated woodpeckers at their homes as well so we were hopeful that we would see it again. Which we did, just two weeks ago and again on Memorial Day weekend when it actually tested our window frames for sounding boards and brazenly stared into our windows.

If you are trying to figure out where you might have seen a pileated woodpecker before, think back on one of the best loved animated characters of all time: Woody Woodpecker. Developed in 1940, cartoonist Walter Lantz based Woody Woodpecker's appearance and laugh on the pileated woodpecker.

The pileated woodpecker is a handsome bird. It has a strong black and white pattern on head and neck with black back and wings. Both sexes have a bright red crest and the male also has a red streak on the cheek.

Until recently, I have always seen pileated woodpeckers from a bit of a distance. The other day though, I opened the door to see who was knocking, only to find Mr. Pileated sitting on the rail just ten feet away pecking at one of the posts. I was surprised at just how big they really are. They are reported to be one of our largest forest birds and this one looked to be about the size of a crow.

Like other woodpeckers, pileated woodpeckers get much of their sustenance from pecking at dead or dying trees for insects. Because of their size though, they can move a lot of material when searching for their favorite food, carpenter ants creating large openings. These foraging holes are typically rectangular in shape.

Pileated woodpeckers do not migrate. Both the male and the female share and defend the same range all year long. Interestingly, they do not share roosting holes at night, likely because it is difficult to find a roosting cavity large enough to accommodate two of them. Pileated woodpeckers choose roost trees that afford them multiple entrances in case of predator attacks.

When excavating nesting cavities, both mates participate. The nest is usually about 40-50 feet up large dead trees.  Once they get started, you can easily observe them hammering away and removing billfuls of wood chips. Both mates also help to incubate the eggs and care for the young.

All this excavation done by pileated woodpeckers serves to create habitat for many other critters. Not counting Mexico, there are 85 species of cavity nesting birds in the US, most of them in the West (nuthatches, chickadees, screech owls, sawhet owls, kestrels and bluebirds to name a few). Roosts, nest cavities and even foraging holes eventually become home to these other species, making woodpeckers in general keystone species with pileated woodpeckers at the top of the real estate list. Mammal species such as northern flying squirrels, racoons, pine marten, and racoons, also use cavities created by woodpeckers, especially pileated woodpeckers that make larger cavities.

Something I didn’t know, but which makes me hopeful in seeing more pileated woodpeckers, is that they supplement their insect-heavy diets with fruits and nuts and will readily come to suet feeders. I also did not realize that pileated woodpeckers can get along well with humans, even in urban habitats, so long as there are ample trees and snags for nesting and feeding.

Pileated woodpeckers remain a reasonably common bird, but face threats from logging that removes snags (dead trees) and large trees and in more suburban environments, from house cats and collisions with windows. We can help by not regarding snags as “wasted”. Controlling pets and marking windows will benefit many species, not just Woody and his kin.

 

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Help Idaho Wildlife

When we traveled across the state in October 2017, most of the vehicles we saw using the wildlife management areas did not have wildlife plates. Buying wildlife plates is a great way for non-hunters and hunters alike to support wildlife-based recreation like birding.

C'mon folks, let's help Idaho's wildlife by proudly buying and displaying a wildlife license plate on each of our vehicles! 

See below for information on Idaho plates. Most states have wildlife plates so if you live outside Idaho, check with your state's wildlife department or vehicle licensing division for availability of state wildlife plates where you live. 

And tell them that you heard about it from Nature-track.com!

Wildlife License Plates

Great news! as of 2024, there are three NEW designs for license plates. They still are bluebird, cutthroat trout and elk, but they are beautiful.

Idaho Wildlife license plates provide essential funding that benefits the great diversity of native plants and wildlife that are not hunted, fished or trapped—over 10,000 species or 98% of Idaho’s species diversity. Game species that share the same habitats (such as elk, deer, antelope, sage-grouse, salmon, trout) also benefit from these specialty plates.

No state tax dollars are provided for wildlife diversity, conservation education and recreation programs. Neither are any revenues from the sale of hunting or fishing licenses spent on nongame species. Instead, these species depend on direct donations, federal grants, fundraising initiatives—and the Idaho Wildlife license plates.

Both my vehicles have Bluebird Plates. I prefer the bluebird because the nongame program gets 70 percent of the money from bluebird plates, but only 60 percent of the money from elk and trout plates - 10 percent of the money from elk plates supports wildlife disease monitoring and testing programs (to benefit the livestock industry) and 10 percent from cutthroat plates supports non-motorized boat access.

Incidentally, in 2014, the Idaho Legislature denied the Department of Fish and Game the ability to add new plates or even to change the name of the elk and cutthroat plates (very specific) to wildlife and fish plates, a move that would have allowed for changing images occasionally and generating more revenue. It would seem that they believe that we Idahoans don't want a well funded wildlife program.

I think it is time we let the Legislature know that Idahoan support wildlife funding and that we would like to see these generic plates come to fruition.