Pileated Woodpecker

This page is for the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus). My first photographic evidence occurred on March 28, 2015 at Pennyrile Forest State Park, Dawson Springs, KY. I was teaching an environmental education course at the park and caught this guy as it was darting through the trees. This is also the best photograph I have (to date) of the Pileated Woodpecker [update: I finally got a decent picture of one so I replaced the intro photo with the better photo and the other photograph moved down]. I used to see these fairly frequently when I was younger, but I do not see them as much as an adult. It is most likely due having moved outside or at the edge of their typical range. As a teen, I rowed a very small inflatable raft across what I think was Mallard Bay on Fort Gibson Lake (NE Oklahoma) just to see if I could do it, and as I neared the other side, I got to see a Pileated Woodpecker close-up. I don’t think I ever told anyone that story until now. Maybe I was too tired after rowing back across the bay to my car.

As for my second picture of a Pileated Woodpecker (3/13/2022), I was coming out of the woods into a clearing and I looked right to see if I could see anything. Of course, the bird took off from my left at about Warp 6. I had no time to adjust the settings on my camera and was lucky to get it up to my eye to even take this blurry picture. One day I hope to get a decent shot of this beautiful bird.

The following photographs are the best representative images from each date and location.