Pileated Woodpecker

As I joined my husband on the front porch this sunny morning (before the freezing rain hits), he motioned me to be quiet and pointed to a pileated woodpecker in the north woods. As we watched and listened to the thrumming, the woodpecker would stop, cock his head, and then throw it back, like he was tossing an insect into his gullet. I didn't have my camera, but later I took this photo of the extremely large hole he created in a black cherry tree.


In the last Audubon count, there were two sighted in in our area. We see them several times a year. This is good news because over a hundred years ago, they were considered extinct or rare in Indiana. This information about pileated woodpeckers was published in 1890s in Birds of Indiana.

Formerly tolerably common resident; now extinct in many localities and rare in all others. Breeds. None have been seen in Franklin County for twenty years or more, and probably none are now to be found in the Whitewater Valley. It has been reported as present, but rare, in the following counties within the past few years: Monroe (Evermann, Blatchley), Vigo (Jenkins), Dekalb (McBride), Porter (Trouslot), Decatur (Shannon), Starke (Coale, Dury), Allen (Stockbridge), Gibson and Knox (Ridgway). Many are the interesting accounts given of these birds by the older citizens, who knew them as "Logcock," "Black Woodcock" and "Woodcock."