Dryocopus pileatus                                                    Photo John Bishop ©

Some 15 to 19 inches long with a bright red crest, the pileated woodpecker is both spectacular and noisy. When this huge woodpecker is hammering on a tree in search of beetle larvae the noise is so loud it sounds like someone chopping wood with an axe.

Pileated woodpeckers feed on carpenter ants, the larvae of carpenter bees, beetles and fruit. In summer, in Florida you often see them pecking at the bright red seeds in Magnolia cones.

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