ot: huge woodpecker...

ben there · Apr 26, 2013

i saw something today that i've never seen...was out on tractor shredding and saw a woodpecker that had to be at least 18 inches tall...anybody else seen any of these monsters or is it a result of the Bay City nuke plant? i've heard some hammering lately that sounds like a jackhammer almost.

Bspauld · Apr 26, 2013

A Pileated Woodpecker, I'm never seen on in real life, but know several that have, It would be a treat to actually see one,

Hay_Man · Apr 26, 2013

Take your camera with you, I would enjoy seeing that! That would've made a great pic!

Bob M · Apr 26, 2013

Most likely a pileated woodpecker. Very impressive birds!
pileated woodpecker

patiolant · Apr 26, 2013

I once watched one bang apart a beech stump in a few minutes. Pieces of wood 3 inches across were flying in all directions.

Bob M · Apr 26, 2013

Here's a pileated I spotted atop a high tension pole near my house not long ago.

Traditional Farmer · Apr 26, 2013

Like was Pilated Woodpecker lots of them around here.

JRSutton · Apr 26, 2013

Funny - about two hours ago I was checking on my parents old house - was walking around to the back yard and heard a really odd noise - like an old telephone ringing, but deeper, definitely metalic. I couldn't even guess what it was.

Went around the corner and found a woodpecker sitting on an old upside down copper pot whacking away at it like he was going to get somewhere.

He went for quite a while before he gave up.

Either pretty tough, or pretty stupid. I'm not sure which.

EricInSEI · Apr 26, 2013

The Ivory Billed Woodpecker (possibly extinct) is that size.
Ivory Billed Woodpecker

Billy NY · Apr 26, 2013

You'll know if there is a pileated woodpecker around, their call is loud and very unique, we have them here, not common, but I do hear them and not even see them, easy to recognize the sounds they make, nothing else sounds like them.

patiolant · Apr 26, 2013

Woodpeckers do that to establish territories and attract mates. The louder the drumming sound they can make the better in the spring. We have sapsuckers that do that every spring on our metal well lid.

Zachary Hoyt · Apr 26, 2013

I see one at least every year or two here. They fly in a funny way, sort of a series of dips rather than a straight line. They are a neat bird.
Zach

El Toro · Apr 26, 2013

Did it look like this woodpecker? My former co-worker has a pair near his home. They hatch a pair every year. One was here several weeks ago. Hal

GVSII · Apr 26, 2013

(quoted from post at 14:41:36 04/26/13) The Ivory Billed Woodpecker (possibly extinct) is that size.
Ivory Billed Woodpecker

Woodpeckers often hammer on metal to attract a mate. I have one around here that hits a speedlimit sign just across the road from my house. He can really make it ring.

John Fulton · Apr 26, 2013

Well..... thats where Woody Woodpecker snuck off to, I ain"t seen him in years!

Seriously though, Walt Disney sure had an eye for nature. His cartoon characters sound and act just like the real thing... Woody WP, Wiley Coyote and the Roadrunner,(what was his name?)

Hay hay hay · Apr 26, 2013

I see a few Pileated Woodpeckers here every year.
Very secretive, migratory, but noisy.

RayP(MI) · Apr 26, 2013

Iwas sitting under a tree - trying to sit very quietly, deer hunting. One of them chose that tree to work over. I was showered with sawdust and wood chips..

RandyB(MI) · Apr 26, 2013

We have a lot of them out here in our woods. They come up to our suet feeders sometimes. The sound is like something from the jungle.

ben there · Apr 26, 2013

that looks like it but twice that size

ben there · Apr 26, 2013

this one had a long point of feathers on back of head like one of them goofy bicycle helmets

ben there · Apr 26, 2013

all i've ever heard is "The Roadrunner"

JerryS · Apr 27, 2013

There's a colony of PWs on my place---lots of dead trees for them to whack on. This is a stump they've chopped up pretty good.

The old folks down here (the generation before me, I mean; I keep forgetting I'm now old folks) called these birds "Oh Gods". That's because Oh, God! is what woodland visitors usually said when they were startled by Woody's squawking cry overhead, or when he started banging out biscuit-sized chunks of wood and raining them down on someone's head.

2x4 · Apr 27, 2013

where I grew up in northern WV they were called a 'wood hen' because of the call. Never knew their real name til I was 17.

greygoat · Apr 27, 2013

They are as big as a large Crow !

Billy NY · Apr 27, 2013

My friends always talked about these and I never saw one until a few years back, now I know the call, and its nice to see one of these amongst all the birds that are here, our place has a lot of overgrown areas and I've see birds I've never seen before.

Jeff B. · Apr 27, 2013

I would love to see one of those big peckers, lol. They're here in Idaho, but rather scarce. I'm a birdwatcher, and someday I will add one of those to my life list. As to your comment on how they fly, all woodpeckers glide with their wings closed, as opposed to most other birds. That gives them an 'undulating' flight. I can spot a woodpecker out of the corner of my eye just from the way they fly/flap.

ot: huge woodpecker...

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