BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Birding woodpecker

I recently moved to MD and I saw my first Piliated (sp?) woodpecker. I was so excited! He was so much larger than any I had seen in Missouri. I haven't seen him again but think I hear him. Also, I am trying to learn to recognize bird calls. We live in a heavily wooded area and in the morning it sounds like an aviary. Does anyone know a site with bird sounds? I found one site but the offering was pretty limited.

Hi Circe...you're gonna love eNature.com. The bird audios are awesome, as is all the info. they provide their habits and markings. I use that site often.

I have a pileated in the area of my home too, but have only "seen" it twice. I hear it often, tho. It sounds to me like a jungle bird...a very unique sound. I hear it alot in the early morning, drumming on a tree. What I didn't know, when I spotted it, is that you can't identify the sex the same way as Downeys or Hairys, since both sexes of the pileated have red heads. You need to look closely for a red mustache.

Theres also a little hand-held thing for sale at <a href="www.identiflyer.com" target="_blank"></a> ...it would be great to walk thru the woods with. Sometimes I hear a song and then don't get it right an hour later when I'm looking for it at eNature. I think I'll put it on my Xmas list...(and then buy it for myself... <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> )

Put some suet out on a tree where you will be able to watch them - they'll be around. They are gorgeous birds.

Suet is definitely a huge draw for any sort of woodpecker, so the more suet you have up, the more woodpeckers you'll see!

As far as sound files go, I've seem the ones that are pre-loaded, but really the best thing to do is buy yourself a MP3 player. They're getting pretty cheap. Then just load it up with the MP3 files for the birds YOU want to go learn about instead of having to suffer with what this machine thing is pre-loaded with. You can change them out when you travel, put shore birds when you go to the beach, you name it!

I have a Rio 600 MP3 player which I love.

Lisa, the red bellied woodpecker is so funny. He keeps coming to the feeder - someone told me that they will take seed and "plant" it in a tree so that nuthatches and other tree climbing birds can find the seeds. I don't know that that is true but this guy is definitely looking for his "reflection" in the glass of the feeder.

Actually I'm pretty sure they are 'squirreling the seeds away' in the tree, to make sure they have some for later. Sort of like squirrels do with acorns and so on. The problem is that nuthatches are smart little critters and look at this as free lunch (although why the nuthatches don't just go to the feeder is beyond me) so they go along and eat up the stores. The woodpeckers are trying to plan for the future when food isn't so easy to get, and the nuthatches are filling their little bellies ...

At least he's not coming to your windows! We have 2 or 3 cardinals (now it's the baby ones) that come from window to window of our house, hang on the windowsill and try to get in. Well, they're really trying to get to this other bird that they see in the window. They don't fly at it full tilt, but they land on the window and then try to figure out how to get in to it.