Pileated Woodpecker Female Stops Her Pecking To Stare Stock Image

A big, dashing bird with a flaming crest, the largest woodpecker in North America. Excavating deep into rotten wood to get at the nests of carpenter ants, the Pileated leaves characteristic rectangular holes in dead trees. May gouge deep holes in rotten wood to get at ant nests, sometimes tearing apart stumps and big sections of fallen logs. The pileated woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus is a large, mostly black woodpecker native to North America. An insectivore, it inhabits deciduous forests in eastern North America, the Great Lakes, the boreal forests of Canada, and parts of the Pacific Coast. It is the largest extant woodpecker species in the United States.