This is one of those "you had to be there" experiences. I was at Save Our Seabirds and heard the "drum" of the Pileated Woodpecker. I saw the bird on a tree trunk inside its cage, and as I slowly approached, it hopped to the ground.
Then it peeked at me from the side! I walked to that side and it ran to the other side and peeked. I went to the other side and back it went to the other side! As you can see from this next photograph, I couldn't get a photograph of its peek at me.
The Pileated Woodpecker is the largest of the woodpeckers; its favorite food is carpenter ants.
Woodpecker wildlife photographer C. A. Wetzel lives in Central Florida (west coast). He writes on his website:
"In the eastern part of their range (our area), they can be found in old and new growth forests, forested woodlots, and occasionally in parks and suburban areas... They are most commonly found in large deciduous forests, particularly those that contain a large percentage of standing dead trees and fallen dead trees (C. A. Wetzel, Pileatedwoodpeckerfeeder.com)".
An advantage to not "cleaning out" some of the natural growth areas in Wildewood Springs is being able to share our habitat with residents who were here before Seibert and Neal built Wildewood Springs. Those precious natural areas are habitat gifts to woodpeckers, birds, and wildlife, even visiting Pileated Woodpeckers.
I've seen a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers a couple times in the Pineneedle area of Wildewood IIA, once on a Sabal Palm and the other time in a Southern Live Oak tree. I heard them before I saw them. Listen HERE to their wuk wuk sound and their drumming.
The bird you see in these photographs cannot be released due to its injuries. Instead, it offers visitors to Save Our Birds a chance to observe, learn, and embrace caring wildlife practices.
