Pileated Woodpeckers Hammering Away

by Kevin Strauss

Its sounds like high-pitched laughter. I heard it as I was chopping ice off my driveway during our weekend warm spell. I could imagine the call came from some kind of gremlin, giggling in the nearby woods. And while the source of the call is more mundane, it has its own kind of magic.

The actual source of the call was our largest northern woodpecker, the pileated (PILL-e-ate-id) woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus). The scientific name of this bird means "capped tree-pain," which makes sense given what these crow-sized birds do all day: hammer their beaks into trees. Of course the naturalist that named this bird probably knew that woodpeckers weren't hammering on a tree to hurt it, they were hammering on a tree to reach the ants and other insects that were already eating the tree's wood for dinner.

In winter, pileated woodpeckers aren't thinking of mating or nest-building, so much or their activity, other than eating, is related to protecting their territory from other pileateds. While woodpeckers can vocalize, few would term the sound "singing" in the aesthetic sense. Instead, these woodpeckers "drum" by pounding on hollow logs, or the occasional rain gutter to advertise that this "land is their land." Pileateds might defend 200 acres of territory from competitors. The sight of most conflicts seems to be nesting sites. When a pair of pileated woodpeckers find a nice hollow tree and excavate a pleasant penthouse nest site, they want to use it year after year. Since these birds don't migrate in the winter, they can keep an eye on their nest site year-round and chase off any pileated "squatters" that might wander by.

When a resident woodpecker spots intruders, it confronts them, possibly giving the high-pitched "kek, kek, kek" call that I heard in my driveway. Ornithologists (bird scientists) tell us that the "kek, kek, kek" call is a way for a pileated to call its mate. Perhaps two birds are better at chasing off intruders than one.

Of course, other woodpeckers aren't the only intruders, where pileateds are concerned. These woodpeckers will try to chase red squirrels off of their nest trees, possibly even pecking at them with their sharp beaks. Researchers say that if a red squirrel really wants to take over a woodpecker nest, it will probably win in the end and the pileated pair will fly off to build another nest elsewhere in the territory.

So the next time you are outside, listen for the calls from our winter birds. They may alert you to a wildlife drama unfolding just outside your front door.

The Ely Timberjay