Tuesday, June 4, 2013

pileated woodpeckers






Pileated Woodpeckers in the woods by our house. These are huge, like hens!

They were doing a little dance, so of course I Googled it and found this:

These birds have been observed performing a courtship dance. This dance consists of one bird bowing, scraping, and stepping sideways in a circle around another bird.

I was curious about the coloring as they both looked the same, I know in some birds the male has the more striking colors. According to the internet, the male and female both do have the same coloring, the striking red head etc., with the only difference is a small red mustache on the male.  

Well, both of these had the red mustache, so I guess they are both male, and maybe it wasn't a mating ritual after all. Or maybe it was… not that there's anything wrong with that…



spring