Danielle Putnam spotted this Pileated Woodpecker in her backyard and was able to snap a few photos of her as she hung out on the tree there. She mentioned that there are a few of them in the area where they live in Michigamme and they had two males around a month or so ago. These woodpeckers are one of the largest forest birds on the continent and they used to be a rare sighting, but have been making a comeback. They’re usually a bit skiddish, so they’re not always easy to capture in pictures.

Get To Know Nature has a neat video of two male Pileated Woodpeckers dueling. They commented that these enormous woodpeckers usually stay up in the trees and away from people, but they were lucky enough to witness these two males having a duel, which included flying within 10 feet of the photographer. Then they fenced together on the ground for over an hour. Pretty spectacular!

Nice set of pix! And a cool video too.
Although they never did reveal who
the Head Pecker was.

Those birds always amaze me. They are big, they are
so beautiful...and that video? WOWOWOW....all the
years I watched critters, not once did I see
anything like that! That is beyond cool!

Beautiful birds! Great pictures!
Thanks for sharing these.

Hi
Interesting video. At one point, one of the males
was pecking at the plants. I think this is what they
call "displacement activity"--something that's done
when the animal is upset but isn't attacking the
real cause of it's anger. With regard to more
posing, flapping and hopping than actual attack,
well, neither of the birds could afford to get hurt.