Pileated Woodpecker

This grouping of black-and-white flight feathers belongs to the Pileated Woodpecker, a crow-sized bird with a signature flaming red crest. Their plumage is mostly black, set off by white stripes on the neck and bold white underwing patches that are revealed brilliantly in their heavy, bounding flight.

Sooty black to charcoal base color with prominent white basal patches and irregular white spotting/windows on the inner vanes that create a dramatic flashing effect in flight.

Tightly interlocked pennaceous barbs designed for powerful, undulating flight; stiff and resilient structure with no plumulaceous down visible at the base in this grouping.

Stiff, smooth, and slightly glossy on the dorsal surface; the vane is remarkably rigid to withstand the mechanical stress of drumming and powerful flight.

The combination of large size, sooty black coloration, and large, irregular white windows on the inner vane of the primaries are unique to this species.

Mature deciduous or coniferous forests with large, standing dead trees (snags) for nesting and foraging; often found in parks and woodlots with aging timber.

Resident throughout the eastern United States, much of southern Canada, and parts of the Pacific Northwest and northern California. Non-migratory.

Keystone species; their excavation work provides essential habitat for secondary cavity nesters like wood ducks, owls, and flying squirrels.

Northern Flicker (smaller with yellow or red shafts), Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Extinct/Critically Endangered, white on secondaries rather than primaries).

Pileated Woodpeckers create large rectangular holes in trees while searching for carpenter ants; these excavations are so large they often provide nesting cavities for many other species cycle.

The feathers appear to be in good condition, likely molted as a set or scavenged from a wing; no significant fault bars or parasitic wear is visible.