Pileated Woodpecker

The commute to work the other morning was interrupted by loud drumming coming from somewhere in the yard. I had a pretty good idea of the source, and returned to the house for my camera. Resuming my commute, a pileated woodpecker flushed from the other side of the walking apple tree; I snapped a picture of him as he flew out of the yard.

They are a startlingly large and beautiful bird. Smaller woodpeckers are fairly abundant, but other than old Saturday morning cartoons, (Woody Woodpecker is a pileated woodpecker), most people never see a pileated woodpecker, noted to be uncommon in these parts.

Wikpedi reports the following: The Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) is a very large North American woodpecker, roughly crow-sized, inhabiting deciduous forests in eastern North America, the Great Lakes, the boreal forests of Canada, and parts of the Pacific coast. It is also the largest woodpecker in the United States, except the possibly extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Adults are 16 to 19 in long, span 26 to 30 in across the wings, with an average weight of 11 oz.