Subject: Pileated Woodpecker eating fruit
Date: Aug 31 18:36:44 1995
From: Burton Guttman - guttmanb at elwha.evergreen.edu



A few minutes ago, as I left the Evergreen campus, I was astonished to
see a Pileated Woodpecker doing what, to me, is a very unwoodpeckerlike
thing to do. It was moving around in the branches of a small tree (which
I can't identify immediately), just like a passerine, and eating the
berries. I've never seen this before. However, Bent notes that
Pileateds do supplement their insect diets with berries, which were found
to constitute 11% of the diet in one case; and the new book on
woodpeckers by Winkler, Christie, and Nurney notes that berries and nuts
may be almost a third of the Pileated's diet. (I haven't tried to read
much more about this, but I notice some mention of a few other species of
woodpeckers eating fruits, in among the main diets of insects and related
animals.) As this bird feasted, it occasionally gave out long bursts of
its kik-kik-kik call, as if it were announcing its great find; but only
five meters away another Pileated sat on an alder, hunting in the usual
woodpecker fashion.

Burt Guttman guttmanb at elwha.evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College Voice: 360-866-6000, x. 6755
Olympia, WA 98505 FAX: 360-866-6794