Pileated Woodpeecker sighting!

[dantesspirit]

Sat afternoon, hanging out on the trees just the other side of the fence.

This is only the 3rd time I've spotted this bird, let alone got clear enough photos to positively identify them, here at Five Oaks.

Next to the Red Headed Woodpecker and the Yellow Bellied Sapsucker, these are the hardest Woodpeckers to get photos of here. I swear they know when you're trying to get a photo of them. Heh.

Comments

[meowmensteen]

I was about to dispute your comment because I see them in Seattle sometimes, but then I thought to look at their range map and saw that they skip a whole bunch of area in the west before showing up on the west coast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pileated_woodpecker#/media/File:Dryocopus_pileatus_map.svg

[mistressofmuses]

That's such a wild range map! It's interesting to me that they're so common in the south of the US, and then arc up so far north into Canada. Though I didn't realize that I have a shot at seeing them in the PNW too though, so that's good to know!

[meowmensteen]

It is a crazy map.

If you're ever in Seattle, Discovery Part is a good place to go to see them. I've seen them there a few times. Usually you can hear them first. They sound kind of like a Northern Flicker, only much louder.

[mistressofmuses]

That's good to know! I haven't ever made it up to Washington State - yet! - though I've journeyed into Oregon a couple of times when my grandparents lived there.

But also good to know to listen for a flicker-but-louder (bigger), because those I am familiar with!

[dantesspirit]

Birds are wild like that, lol.

Scarlet Tanagers are 5 miles from me, up on the Peaks of Otter, but not here, for example, that I've seen.