The pileated woodpecker is a large, crow-sized woodpecker with a prominent red crest, white neck stripe, and a mostly black body. These woodpeckers are native to North America, where it is the largest confirmed extant woodpecker species, and they are the third largest extant species of woodpecker in the world, after the great slaty woodpecker and the black woodpecker. It inhabits deciduous forests in eastern North America, the Great Lakes, the boreal forests of Canada, and parts of the Pacific Coast. The woodpecker is primarily an insectivore and eats insects that live in trees. Pileateds are famous for making large, nearly rectangular carvings into trees, which they either use to extract prey inside the tree or to make a nest. They are a species with a large range and an increasing population, causing them to be categorized as a species of "least concern" by the IUCN in 2016.
Region
North America
Typical Environment
Found across eastern and parts of central North America, through the Great Lakes and boreal forests of Canada, and locally along the Pacific Coast. Prefers mature deciduous and mixed forests with abundant large snags and downed logs. It also occupies riparian corridors, wooded suburbs, and regenerating forests if sizable dead trees are present. Avoids extensive treeless areas and very open habitats, but can be surprisingly tolerant of human presence where forest structure persists.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 1800 m
Climate Zone
Temperate
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
The pileated woodpecker is North America’s largest regularly occurring woodpecker, famous for carving deep, rectangular holes into trees to extract carpenter ants. Its excavations create nesting and roost cavities later used by many other species, making it an important ecosystem engineer. Males show a red malar (mustache) stripe that females lack. Despite logging pressures in the past, it has adapted to many second-growth forests where large dead trees remain.
Southern Pileated Woodpecker after John White, 1585.
Plate 111 of the Birds of America by John James Audubon, depicting pileated woodpeckers (1 ♀, 3 ♂♂)
Male drilling
Temperament
solitary and territorial
Flight Pattern
undulating flight with strong wingbeats
Social Behavior
Typically maintains year-round territories as monogamous pairs or single birds. Nests in self-excavated cavities in dead or decaying trees, often used by other wildlife in later years. Both sexes drum to communicate and defend territory, and both share incubation and chick-rearing duties.
Migratory Pattern
Resident
Song Description
Calls are loud, ringing series of cuk-cuk-cuk notes that accelerate or trail off, often reminiscent of laughter. Drumming is powerful and resonant on hollow trunks, used for communication rather than feeding. Soft contact calls are given between mates near the nest.
