Pileated Woodpecker
high confidenceDryocopus pileatus
A large, crow-sized black woodpecker clinging to a suet feeder on a snowy deck. Key features: bright red crest on the crown, bold black-and-white facial striping with a white line down the neck, long chisel-like pale bill, and a mostly black body with stiff wedge-shaped tail. The face pattern suggests a female or the red malar stripe is not visible from this angle. Setting (winter, suet feeder, treed farmland edge) fits the species well.
Other possibilities:
- Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) — Also a dark woodpecker with yellow/red crown patch that visits suet in northern winters, but much smaller and lacks the tall crest and white neck stripe.
- Northern Flicker (red-shafted intergrade) (Colaptes auratus) — Similar large size and suet-feeder habits, but flickers show brown barred plumage and a spotted breast rather than solid black with a crest.
2026-08-21