Participant Photo: Pileated Woodpecker

After logging birds for several hours for the FeederWatch project on a cold November day, I sat down in my office to get other work done. A few minutes later in my peripheral vision, a bird with a large wingspan flew past the window, causing quite a commotion at our backyard feeders. I assumed it was the local Coopers Hawk, but when I moved to a window with a closer vantage point, it was indeed a Pileated Woodpecker – a first-time visitor to our feeders. What a thrill! Its weight pulled the squirrel-proof cage all the way down on the feeder, which was filled with a no-mess blend of seeds from Wild Birds Unlimited, but this did not daunt it. It simply used its long tongue to fish out seeds from between the wire mesh.