• Saturday-What'sUP February 23 - 04:26 pm

When Jen Stout sent in today's photos, she said that this Pileated Woodpecker had been attacking a dead poplar tree in their driveway here UP North and she had been lucky enough to fire off a few shots of it, in the midst of it's tap, tap, tapping.

These large woodpeckers usually hammer away at dead and fallen trees and the large rectangular holes they leave behind are often home then, to a number of species of birds, bats and even pine martins. Something else I discovered, is that they don't just peck away at the trees in search of a food source, such as carpenter ants, but that in late winter, the male will "drum" to establish and defend a territory. Both the male and the female will "drum" as a part of their courtship, to call a mate from a distance or to warn off an intruder too close to their nest. Quite the interesting way to communicate!

Great photos! What a beautiful bird.

Looks like Woody's cousin.

Beautiful pictures! And that's spot on, Richard :-)

Such a beautiful rare bird.:>

Nice pics...quite chipper actually!

FANTASTIC pictures..these guys are tough to get pics of!

Great pics,Jen!! I love watching the busy birds!

Great photos!
I love woodpeckers!