A Pileated Woodpecker Was Here

Digging on the dogs today, I came across this dead tree that had been worked over pretty well by a local pileated woodpecker.

A pileated will leave holes like these -- very vertical, and looking a bit like a rectangular mortise.

A pileated woodpecker looks very much like an ivory billed woodpecker, but is a little bit smaller -- about the size of a crow. Like the Ivory Bill, they have a red crest and black and white plumage.

Pileated woodpeckers prefer to nest in large old pine trees, but in this part of the country, they are as likely to be found in a Hickory, Yellow Poplar, Maple, Sycamore, Red Oak, White Oak, Chestnut, or Sweetgum trees.