PILEATED WOODPECKER 



By T. GILBERT PEARSON 



Cte Matioml Biaocmtion of ^ububon ^otittiea 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 94 



While lying abed late one morning in camp listening to the lusty shouts of 

 a Florida Wren, I became aware of a muffled knocking sound often repeated. 

 It was the time of day when a field naturalist should be up and abroad, but 

 we had gone into camp late the evening before, after a hard day's trip, so I 

 was trying to get a Httle beauty sleep while the guide was away on the lake 

 seeking fish for breakfast. But the Wren would not permit slumber, so, with 

 mixed feelings of admiration and annoyance, I lay and listened to its wild 

 expressions of merriment. The mysterious pounding finally caused me to get 

 up and go out of the tent to discover its source. In a little while I found, 

 about 60 yards away, a tall dead tree, old and greatly decayed. Perhaps 

 50 feet from the ground was a fresh round hole, while numerous fragments of 

 wood were scattered on the carpet of dry forest leaves beneath. It was clear 

 that the pounding was going on inside this tree and at some distance from 

 the ground. 



Bringing an axe from the camp, I gave the tree several vigorous strokes. 

 Soon there emerged from the entrance-hole a Pileated Woodpecker. After 

 bounding away a few yards, it returned and alighted just above its nesting- 

 hole. It surveyed me in a startled manner for a few seconds and then flew 

 to a near-by tree. Its shouts soon brought its mate, but the wary birds did 

 not tarry long. In a few minutes the forest had swallowed them. For five 

 days we lay in camp at this spot, and while we rarely saw the Pileated Wood- 

 peckers, it was only necessary to remain in the tent a short time at almost any 

 period of the day in order to hear again that muffled knocking sound, made 

 by one of the birds as it chiseled away at its work. 



The birds were not svifficiently frightened or annoyed by our presence to 

 desert the nest they probably were building, but it was evident that they wished 

 to take no chances by allowing themselves to be seen. 



There possibly may have been eggs in the nest at the time, for these Wood- 

 peckers are known to dig away at the walls of their nesting- cavity with their 

 bills after the eggs have been laid. 



With what fortunes the birds met in their attempt to rear a brood that year 

 I did not learn, but doubtless they had a successful season. Eight months 

 later, when passing through the same territory, I visited the spot and found 

 that the old tree had fallen. Cutting away the wood I discovered that the 

 cavity made by the Woodpecker had extended downward for a little more than 

 3 feet, turning slightly to the right as it descended. Why the hole had not been 



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