This is an unplanned follow-up to yesterday's RHW (Red-headed Woodpecker). It's a Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus).
The Missus and I had an appointment at a place about a half-hour drive from home and we took advantage of our trip to check out a park we hadn't been to before.
Three Lakes Park & Nature Center was filled with birds...woodpeckers (pileated, red-bellied, and downy), kingfishers, thrushes, cardinals, warblers, titmice, geese, as well as the cormorants and heron in my other pictures from today.
We saw this male (males have a red stripe behind their bills) tapping and digging into this tree. After several minutes of work it obviously broke through to a bug-filled cavity. He stopped with the tapping and he would stick his whole face into the tree, draw it out, and (presumably) swallow.
It's hard to tell from this picture, but these things are really very large. Crow-sized. 30 inch / 75cm wingspan.
