{"id":386,"date":"2025-07-09T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coastaltourism\/?p=386"},"modified":"2023-07-17T12:13:42","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T19:13:42","slug":"pileated-woodpecker-hylatomus-pileatus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coastaltourism\/pileated-woodpecker-hylatomus-pileatus\/","title":{"rendered":"Pileated Woodpecker (Hylatomus pileatus)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n \"\"\n
Pileated Woodpecker (Hylatomus pileatus<\/em>)<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

You have probably heard a woodpecker at some point in your life, but have you been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the bird behind the noise?<\/p>\n

The Pileated Woodpecker, one of the largest, most striking birds in North America, is a particularly beautiful sight. This black bird with bold white stripes down the neck and a flaming-red crest is nearly the size of a crow. Its bill is long and chisel-like, about the length of the head.<\/p>\n

Any forest type can sustain Pileated Woodpeckers as long as there are trees large enough for roosting and nesting. These birds are typically found in mature and old-growth forests. <\/span><\/p>\n

Foraging<\/strong><\/h3>\n

These powerful woodpeckers chip out characteristic oval or rectangular excavations in the trees where they forage for their prey, including wood-boring insects and insects that nest in trees like long-horned beetles and carpenter ants. These holes can be so large that they weaken smaller trees or even cause them to break in half. <\/span><\/p>\n

The sound of the Pileated Woodpecker\u2019s hammering carries long distances through the woods. They also drum to attract mates and to establish the boundaries of their territory. <\/span><\/p>\n

Roosting<\/strong><\/h3>\n

These birds roost in hollow trees with multiple entrance holes. These roosting cavities are used later by many other birds and small animals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shooting for sport and food was formerly a significant source of mortality for Pileated Woodpeckers; fortunately, shooting these birds is now illegal. <\/span><\/p>\n

Clear-cutting of old-growth and other forests currently has the most significant impact on Pileated Woodpecker habitat, but this species is fairly adaptable, which offsets some of the impact from habitat loss. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You have probably heard a woodpecker at some point in your life, but have you been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the bird behind the noise? The Pileated Woodpecker, one of the largest, most striking birds in North America, is a particularly beautiful sight. This black bird with bold white stripes down the… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8280,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3445],"tags":[1362720],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wildlife","tag-birds-oregon-coast"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coastaltourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coastaltourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coastaltourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coastaltourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8280"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coastaltourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coastaltourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3020,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coastaltourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/3020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coastaltourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coastaltourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/coastaltourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}