Winter Woodpecker

Between the hardwood trees in our ten acre woods, I spotted a pilated woodpecker searching for bugs in tree holes and under bark. I took these photos with my new Nikon d810, 28-300mm lens.

Knock, knock, anybody home. All of these photos were taken, handheld from about 70 feet away. Some photos have been cropped to show additional detail.

Peek-a-boo, is there a nice juicy beetle at home that wants to become take out food? 

The pilated woodpecker is one of my favorite birds. I often see them in the ten acre woods flying from tree to tree. When they become serious, they can make the wood chips fly. 

These birds are very shy. Normally, when I see them, they see me and fly away. I was lucky and was able to take these photos without the woodpecker detecting me. 

I have often seen the woodpecker turn its head from side to side. I think the woodpecker is turning its head to better hear for bugs under the tree bark. I was able to watch this beautiful bird for about 10 minutes and took 20 photos before the pilated decided to fly away.

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