Pileated Woodpecker

This Pileated Woodpecker worked dead wood near the tip of a large tree at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge on 8 November 2019. This species is found in Eastern North America, across Canada, and down the northern Rockies and the Pacific coast to central California. Erika commented that this bird seemed to be darker than the Pileated Woodpeckers we fed in our Minnesota backyard.

Despite its extensive range, only two races of Pileated Woodpeckers are recognized by ornithologists. Dryocopus pileatus pileatus is found in the southeastern United States. from Kansas to Maryland, south to the Florida Keys. Florida birds may be slightly darker than more northern ones. Northern and western birds, D. p. abieticola, are similar but slightly larger. Pileated Woodpeckers along the Pacific Slope often have relatively unbarred underparts, which would might account for Erika’s observation that our bird looked dark. Bull and Jackson (2011), however, note that over 50% of western birds have identical plumage to eastern ones and both eastern and western Pileated Woodpeckers are the same size.