The Pileated Woodpecker is the largest and grandest of the Canadian woodpeckers.  Even non-birders are compelled to take notice when they see one, which isn’t often, given their relative shyness and preference for large,  mature forests.  Patience and persistance is usually all one really needs to find them, but far more often I’ll simply stumble across them by chance.  Such was today’s encounter as I hiked through the Guelph Arboretum, halted in my tracks by a familiar noisy call.  A male Pileated swooped in from the depths of the woods and landed in a dead tree not fifteen feet away, where he proceeded to drum rapidly with his heavy bill.  This was not a food-gathering exercise: the bird was making it clear to any other Pileated within earshot that these woods had been claimed.  A Pileated is a big bird and requires a lot of decaying trees to keep itself and its family well fed, so territorial displays such as this become more frequent during the breeding season.  This particular hollow tree had been carefully selected for its resonant properties, and when I passed by the same spot during my return journey I again found the same male drumming on his favourite perch.

Another woodpecker that I encountered during my hike was a male Northern Flicker.  Flickers have a call that is quite similar to that of the Pileated, and many a birder has followed them through the woods thinking they about to encounter the species’ larger cousin.  The call of a Pileated is best distinguished by the variance of its pitch, which will rise and fall during the succession of wuk syllables.  Flickers, in contrast, hold a very flat, steady pitch, and will draw out their call for a much longer period.