Wildlife Watching Wednesday: Pileated Woodpeckers are Ant Eaters

By: Tom Berg

Woodpeckers are common birds that inhabit most of North America. Downy and hairy woodpeckers are some of the most common, but there are also red-headed woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, northern flickers, yellow-bellied sapsuckers and several others. One of the largest woodpeckers, though, and perhaps the most interesting, is the pileated woodpecker.

Pileated woodpeckers are large birds, standing up to 19 inches tall and having a wingspan of 30 inches. They are actually the second-largest woodpecker in the USA, after the critically rare ivory-billed woodpecker. They are mostly black in color, with some white on their wings and neck and a bright red crest on top of their head.  

Insects are the main food of pileated woodpeckers, and carpenter ants are their favorite snack, by far. They also eat moths, spiders, caterpillars, beetles, beetle larvae and other insects. At certain times of the year, they take advantage of berries and nuts and eat blackberries, persimmons, sumac berries and even the berries from poison ivy vines.

Pileated woodpeckers occasionally visit backyard suet feeders, although they prefer quiet woodland and forest habitat. Large dead trees and decaying logs are their normal targets when searching for ants, but they also hammer away at live trees. They make very large rectangular holes in tree trunks, and this is one way to know if there are pileated woodpeckers nearby. These large holes are sometimes so big that they cause smaller trees and saplings to break in half!

Property owners often cut down dead trees when they find them on their property, but these trees are important to woodpeckers. Pileated woodpeckers like to excavate a nesting hole in the trunk of a large dead tree to raise their young. And of course dead trees are great places to hunt for ants. So consider leaving some dead trees standing on your property of you can.

Pileated woodpeckers are fairly shy birds, so count yourself lucky if you see one flying around this spring!

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