We watched two young female Pileated Woodpeckers Dryocopus pileatus this morning. They were hunting for bugs in grass at the edge of the woods when a neighborhood cat came along; the woodpeckers dived and swooped above it to chase the feline away. She crept away through the shrubs while they vocalized their loud, high-pitched ‘kuk-kuk, kuk-kuk' alarm calls. Then they resumed searching for insects in the grass and at the base of a nearby tree. Note the strong claws that allow them to grip tree bark solidly while they probe for insects.
