Pileated Woodpecker Patch

The Pileated Woodpecker, with its flame-red crest and black-and-white body, is an electrifying sight in eastern and mountain-west forests.

Their numbers have slowly rebounded as those forests regrew after widespread clearing in the 18th and 19th centuries. You can find them banging away at dead wood in search of carpenter ants, their main prey, and the unique rectangular holes they leave behind are used for shelter by other birds.