{"id":77333,"date":"2021-01-05T06:12:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T13:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=77333"},"modified":"2025-05-19T15:19:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T20:19:55","slug":"pileated-woodpecker-the-2021-aba-bird-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/01\/05\/pileated-woodpecker-the-2021-aba-bird-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Pileated Woodpecker – The 2021 ABA Bird of The Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaleMale Pileated Woodpecker perched on a branch – \u00a9 2008 Lettuce Lake Park, Hillsborough County, Florida
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The American Birding Association<\/span><\/a> has selected the Pileated Woodpecker as their Bird of the Year for 2021 and I think it is an excellent choice.<\/p>\n

I honestly can’t recall the first time I saw or heard a Pileated Woodpecker because they seem like they have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I do recall seeing and hearing them as a child at Fort Benning, Georgia<\/span><\/a> and just months later in central Florida.<\/p>\n

Being an Army Brat I moved often in my youth. In my teens I saw and heard Pileated Woodpeckers in Virginia. As an adult I have seen and heard them in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia and probably a few other southern states.<\/p>\n

\"MyMy Virginia backyard in early spring – circa 1999<\/span><\/p>\n

My fondest memories of Pileated Woodpeckers are from my backyard garden in Virginia. I often had my first cup of coffee on my screened in porch listening to and watching them as the sun rose.<\/p>\n

My backyard garden was planted with plenty of cultivated and native plants. It also had tall pines, tulip poplars, dogwoods, redbuds and sweetgums. My pond attracted lots in birds including the Pileated Woodpeckers that visited my home in the woods frequently.<\/p>\n

When dead branches from my trees dropped to the ground I’d drag them to one of my informal flower beds to decompose and enrich the earth whenever it was feasible. Pileated Woodpeckers were the reason I did that because they would come in a feed on the insects in the decomposing branches and I’d get to watch them.<\/p>\n

In the photo above a part of one of those branches can be seen in the flower bed near the center at the bottom of the frame.<\/p>\n

I had some of my closest views of Pileated Woodpeckers in my garden and was delighted to hear them drum<\/span><\/a> and call<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

How I wish now that I had been a bird photographer back then.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale Pileated Woodpecker in an Australian Pine – \u00a9 2009 Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I did get to photograph Pileated Woodpeckers in Florida a few times while I lived there. Now I wish I had photographed them more often than I did because we don’t have Pileated Woodpeckers in Utah and I deeply miss seeing and hearing them.<\/p>\n

The last time I heard Pileated Woodpeckers was in June of 2019 when I visited my son and his family in Virginia. I may have to head north into northern Idaho, western Montana, or Oregon to get a much desired Pileated Woodpecker fix.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

More information on Pileated Woodpeckers<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

(The fence in my backyard had had several panels replaced because branches falling during an ice storm had crushed some of them.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American Birding Association has selected the Pileated Woodpecker as their Bird of the Year for 2021 and I think it is an excellent choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,2324,2570,10813,2000],"tags":[5592,4004,5617,5217,4897,10814,4070,4062,4104,10815,4777,2146],"class_list":["post-77333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-hillsborough-county","category-lettuce-lake-regional-park","category-pileated-woodpeckers","category-pinellas-county-florida","tag-aba-bird-of-the-year","tag-adult","tag-american-birding-association","tag-australian-pines","tag-branch","tag-dryocopus-pileatus","tag-female","tag-male","tag-perched","tag-pileated-woodpecker","tag-woodpecker","tag-woodpeckers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/pileated-woodpecker-australian-pine-mia-mcpherson-3056.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-k7j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":137622,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/11\/30\/male-pileated-woodpecker-up-a-tree\/","url_meta":{"origin":77333,"position":0},"title":"Male Pileated Woodpecker Up A Tree","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week, I was happy when I took my first acceptable images of a male Pileated Woodpecker in a tree at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.","rel":"","context":"In "Oklahoma"","block_context":{"text":"Oklahoma","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/oklahoma\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Pileated Woodpecker in a tree at Sequoyah NWR, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pileated-woodpecker-male-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-2762.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pileated-woodpecker-male-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-2762.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Woodpecker clinging to driftwood, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/red-bellied-woodpecker-on-driftwood-mia-mcpherson-5946.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/red-bellied-woodpecker-on-driftwood-mia-mcpherson-5946.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/red-bellied-woodpecker-on-driftwood-mia-mcpherson-5946.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/red-bellied-woodpecker-on-driftwood-mia-mcpherson-5946.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Nesting Cavity In Oklahoma","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"On my third visit to Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge I was thrilled to spot a male Red-bellied Woodpecker inside of a nesting cavity.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-bellied Woodpecker in a nesting cavity, Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/red-bellied-woodpecker-nesting-mia-mcpherson-1415.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/red-bellied-woodpecker-nesting-mia-mcpherson-1415.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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McPherson","date":"August 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Imagine you are a young Downy Woodpecker, just a couple of months old. 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