Date: 11/21/24 7:26 am From: Barbara Brosnan <bbrosnan...> Subject: Re: [VTBIRD] Pileated Woodpecker Diet
We used to have a dead elm tree in our hedge row that was covered with wild grapevines. In late summer and early fall we could count on a Pileated Woodpecker burying him/herself in the leaves and then gorging on the over ripe and quite fermented grapes. All the while, the bird being fully hidden, the leaf-covered tree emitted loud screeches of wild drunken joy!
Happy harvest everyone!
Barbara Brosnan
Weybridge
-----Original Message-----
From: Vermont Birds <VTBIRD...> On Behalf Of Ken Copenhaver
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2024 11:07 PM
To: <VTBIRD...>
Subject: Re: [VTBIRD] Pileated Woodpecker Diet
About 15 years ago I was in a campground in Wells, Maine where there were cherry trees. A Pileated Woodpecker scarfed down the cherries one by one, right above our campsite. The cherries seemed to just roll down his throat!
Very entertaining.
Ken Copenhaver, Fairfax
On Wed, Nov 20, 2024 at 3:28 PM Maeve Kim <maevekim7...> wrote:
> We watched a pileated yesterday, also foraging among dry leaves. We
> weren’t really close to it, but through the binoculars, it appeared to
> be picking individual wild grapes from the vine that was draped around
> the tree. I had no idea they ate fruit, but Cornell says:
> The Pileated Woodpecker’s primary food is carpenter ants, supplemented
> by other ants, woodboring beetle larvae, termites, and other insects
> such as flies, spruce budworm, caterpillars, cockroaches, and
> grasshoppers. They also eat wild fruits and nuts, including
> greenbrier, hackberry, sassafrass, blackberries, sumac berries, poison
> ivy, holly, dogwood, persimmon, and elderberry.
>
> Maeve Kim, Jericho Center
>
> > On Nov 20, 2024, at 3:14 PM, Sue Gilbert <suewgilbert...> wrote:
> >
> > This morning I spent several minutes watching a pileated woodpecker
> > in
> my birch tree, not pecking on the trunk or bark, but rather foraging
> amongst all the dry seeds hanging off the branches. The seeds that I
> could reach, I inspected for insects, thinking that's what the
> woodpecker was eating. But there were none. Does anyone know if
> Pileated Woodpeckers actually eat the birch seeds?
>
