Piliated Woodpeckers are pretty rare, except on our property, where we’ve got a few battling for pecking rights. If you haven’t seen one, they are huge and prehistoric-looking, about the size of a crow.
We’ve got six large dead trees near the house that support all species of local woodpeckers.
This one surprised me … I’ve never seen one on the bird feeder. It must have thought it found heaven.
The next morning I woke up around 4:00AM to the sound of the wind chime frantically shaking. I ran downstairs to find a young raccoon wildly swinging on the cage. It managed, despite that frenzied rocking, to clean out the entire feeder.
wow, that’s a big bird!