Pileated Woodpecker

Did you know Woody Woodpecker was designed after the pileated woodpecker?

Paul has a couple of Woody books in his Big Little Book collection.

His collection is probably one of my favorite decorating items. 

When I was down east with my buddies a few weeks ago.....we spotted a pileated woodpecker in a distant tree. 

It was quite a ways away and my iPhone zoom didn't capture it all that well...but Patsy and I had a good time watching it. She hadn't seen one there before....tons of other birds including eagles...but not this particular large species.  

So why I'm writing about the pileated woodpecker today you might wonder?

Just this morning Paul spotted other one on a powerline pole.  Again....the photo doesn't capture it very well but they're pretty distinctive. 

This lead to a text exchange with Patsy...which lead to a little research. It was time to learn more about the pileated woodpecker.

According to Wikipedia the pileated woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in North America and adults can be up to 19 inches long with a wing span of up to 30 inches.  The Latin work pileatus means "capped."    

Then I remembered a video I took of a woodpecker last spring that I just thought was a red-headed woodpecker...which are quite a bit smaller. I know now it was a pileated woodpecker and I was able to track it for almost 2 minutes....hopping around from tree to tree in our backyard. Here are a few screenshots from the video. 

 Thanks Paul....for sending me down this woodpecker hole today....it was a nice little ride.