Pileated Woodpecker

• It shares a genus with the European black woodpecker, already in this catalogue: the Dryocopus are the great cavity excavators of the northern hemisphere.
• Its feeding holes are characteristically rectangular, not round like those of most woodpeckers.
• It is one of the species cited as a possible source of confusion in unconfirmed sightings of the ivory-billed woodpecker, with which it shares size and silhouette.
• It leaves unmistakable rectangular holes as it digs into rotting wood in search of carpenter ants. Its cavities, 15 to 21 cm across inside, are so large that many other species use them afterwards, which makes it a keystone species of its forest.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Mature North American woodland with large trees, where it chisels big rectangular cavities in the trunks

Sexual maturity

11.6 months

Gestation / incubation

18 days

Litter / clutch size

4

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List · Bernis et al., Ardeola (nombres castellanos SEO) · Freeman et al. 2025, Frontiers in Parasitology · Linnaeus 1758

Best time: All year round in mature North American forests