An extraordinary photo of the natural world in action. During February and March, a male and female may pound on a dead branch or old tree trunk for as long as a month to excavate a nesting cavity in which to raise three or four chicks. Both parents take turns incubating the eggs and bringing food to the chicks. Males sit on the eggs mainly at night. Although their diet includes some acorns and beechnuts in the fall, pileated woodpeckers eat mostly ants, flying insects, grubs, and some seeds and fruits.
Carpenter ants are a special favorite.
When the forest floor is blanketed in snow, the birds use their powerful bills to dig out ant nests from tree trunks and tree bases. Jabbing at the wood, they remove chips three to six inches long. According to some observers, these woodpeckers feed on the sap that runs from the trees' wounds and also eat the insects that are lured by the flow of sugary liquid. Woodpeckers of this species have been known to rescue endangered eggs. In one documented instance, when a dead tree containing a nesting cavity collapsed, the female retrieved each of her three eggs with her bill and flew them to a hollow in another tree.