Discover

Today
Animals
Explore
Archive
Search

Use it

Classroom
Resources
Field lab
Quiz
Saved

Trust

Methodology
Sources
Corrections
Accessibility
Contributors

Details

About
Contact
Privacy
Terms
Newsletter

Animal profile

Pileated Woodpecker

Dryocopus pileatus

AvesMature deciduous and mixed forest with large dead trees, across North AmericaLeast Concern

Field profile

The pileated woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in North America now that the ivory-billed is almost certainly gone. It is crow-sized, black with a flaming red crest, and excavates deep rectangular holes in dead wood while hunting carpenter ants.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2023-09-17

Pileated Woodpecker

Its feeding holes are unmistakably rectangular

A pileated woodpecker digs long rectangular cavities into dead trunks to reach carpenter ant galleries. The shape is diagnostic: no other North American woodpecker leaves excavations of that size and geometry, and the holes outlive the bird that made them.

Read with evidence →

Pileated Woodpecker | Daily Animal Facts