11/06/2012

woodpeckers in the wild woods

Today, the female Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus came to the suet feeder.  She has a smaller red cap than the male, a thinner black eyeline, and lacks the red malar stripe he shows along his cheeks.
This woodpecker nibbled for a few minutes, enjoying the suet.  When a chunk broke off and she leaned back, it was impaled on the tip of her lower beak.  Unable to eat it while the suet was stuck on her beak, she flew to a nearby tree and perched about four feet up on the trunk.  Wiping her beak back and forth, she finally dislodged the suet; it fell into the leaf litter below.  She hopped backwards down the trunk to the ground, and shuffled in the leaves until she found her treasure.