Pileated Woodpecker

The Pileated Woodpecker is North America's largest extant woodpecker, measuring up to 19 inches long with a dramatic red crest, black body, and bold white wing patches visible in flight. They excavate large, rectangular holes in dead trees to feed on carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle larvae.

Striking bicolored pattern with a stark white basal half and a glossy jet-black distal half, featuring a strong white rachis near the base that transitions to black.

Pennaceous structure with tightly interlocked barbs and barbules along the upper portion, becoming slightly looser toward the base.

Stiff, smooth, and glossy texture with high rigidity to withstand the physical demands of propping against rough bark.

Distinctive sharp color break between the stark white base and glossy black tip, combined with the stiff, pointed shaft characteristic of woodpecker tail feathers.

Mature deciduous and mixed coniferous-deciduous forests with an abundance of large dead trees and fallen logs.

Resident across forested areas of North America, spanning from Canada down through the eastern United States and parts of the Pacific Coast.

Keystone species that creates large cavities in trees used as nesting and roosting sites by numerous secondary cavity nesters, including owls, ducks, bats, and small mammals.

Other large woodpeckers such as the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (critically endangered/likely extinct) or smaller woodpecker species like the Hairy Woodpecker, whose tail feathers lack the bold, solid bicolored block pattern seen here.

Pileated Woodpeckers can strike a tree at speeds of up to 20 times per second, delivering blows with a force equivalent to 1,000g without suffering brain injury, thanks to spongy skull bones and a specialized tongue that wraps around its brain.

Good condition with intact barbs and minimal wear, suggesting it was freshly molted rather than broken or heavily weathered.

New Hampshire