Pileated woodpecker

Pileated woodpecker
Temporal range:
Male
Female

Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Piciformes
Family: Picidae
Genus: Dryocopus
Species:
D. pileatus
Binomial name
Dryocopus pileatus
Approximate distribution map
  Year-round
Synonyms
  • Picus pileatus Linnaeus, 1758
  • Hylatomus pileatus Linnaeus, 1758

The pileated woodpecker (/ˈplitəd, ˈpɪl-/ PY-lee-ay-tid, PIL-ee-; Dryocopus pileatus) is a large, crow-sized woodpecker with a prominent red crest, white neck stripe, and a mostly black body. These woodpeckers are native to North America, where it is the largest confirmed extant woodpecker species, and they are the third largest extant species of woodpecker in the world, after the great slaty woodpecker and the black woodpecker. It inhabits deciduous forests in eastern North America, the Great Lakes, the boreal forests of Canada, and parts of the Pacific Coast. The woodpecker is primarily an insectivore and eats insects that live in trees. Pileateds are famous for making large, nearly rectangular carvings into trees, which they either used to extract prey inside the tree or to make a nest. They are a species with a large range and an increasing population, causing them to be categorized as a species of "least concern" by the IUCN in 2016.