Three weeks ago, a message in my e-mail inbox had a picture of a dead tree attached. The tree was riddled with deep, elongated holes. The message was from my friend Pamela Grath, owner of Dog Ears Books in Northport, an inviting shop full of eclectic titles.
Her message was short, "What is doing this?"
Any of the famous fictional sleuths who undoubtedly live among the pages on Pamela's shelves (those such as Hercule Poirot, Albert Campion or -- my personal favorite -- Lord Peter Wimsey), though all European, would have been able to identify the work as that of a pileated woodpecker.
These birds are resident throughout southern Canada, the Midwest and eastern U.S., as well as along the Pacific Coast and northern Rockies. Noted writer Kenn Kaufman aptly describes it as follows, "A big, dashing bird with a flaming crest ..." It is North America's largest woodpecker, except for the ivory-billed, which may be extinct.
Pileateds chisel deep, elongated holes in trees that otherwise look entirely healthy. But the trees are not healthy. Since this large, prehistoric-looking bird has a taste for carpenter ants, it goes after trees where heart rot has already taken hold. Carpenter ants, in turn, tunnel up the softer inside of the trunks. Neither the ants, nor the woodpeckers, eat wood.
The ants establish colonies in these tunnels. Since well over half a pileated woodpecker's diet is carpenter ants, it's easy to see why they drill so many holes in a single tree. Once the holes are opened up, the woodpeckers extract the ants with their very long, slender tongues.
The elongated holes do not serve as nesting sites. Nest sites are cavities in a dead tree or, sometimes, in the dead branch of a living tree and, rarely, in utility poles. Placed from 15 to 80 feet above the ground, they consist of a relatively small entrance hole with a larger site hollowed out inside the tree.
Both sexes work on excavating the nesting site and, once finished, the female lays 3 to 5 white eggs in it. Male and female alternate incubating and both parents feed nestlings by regurgitation. About four weeks after hatching, the young leave the nest and remain with their parents for up to a couple of months.
Some conservationists have considered pileated woodpeckers to be indicator species, but this distinction hardly seems to fit a bird that will, if unmolested, live in parks or at the edges of cities -- even fairly good-size cities.
But that doesn't mean it's not an important species. Pileateds are important not only for the niche they fill, but also because their large nest cavities undoubtedly serve as nest sites for ducks like mergansers and buffleheads.
European settlers gave this remarkable bird many colorful names. Chief among them was "cock of the woods." It was also called "laughing woodpecker," "Indian hen" and "king of the woods." Certainly it seems to be the king of any woods it inhabits with its raucous cry and the jackhammer sound of its drilling.
Although pileateds are not common feeder visitors, in the way of hairy, downy and other woodpeckers, they do occasionally take suet. This is especially true during very cold spells in winter, as well as when they are feeding young.
A number of questions regularly come up about these birds. Most people want to know the correct pronunciation of "pileated." Either is acceptable, whether pronounced to rhyme with "pill," or "pile," although I prefer the former because it's what I first learned (and it is more commonly used among experts like Kenn Kaufman).
Some people ask why woodpeckers go after their houses. The birds are either trying to get at insects (houses can harbor carpenter ants) or they are working on a nest site.
The only sure remedy for woodpecker attacks on homes is to follow naturalist Tom Ford's suggestion of vinyl siding, although a few people have reported having good luck by simply taking suet feeders down.
Woodpeckers regularly drill into our home. My husband simply fills the holes, and -- eventually -- paints them in. It's a small price to pay to share our place with these fascinating creatures.
Kay Charter, of Omena, is executive director of Saving Birds Thru Habitat, an organization that teaches people how to help migrating birds whose populations are declining.
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