I was out on the deck the other day, taking some backyard bird pictures, when I heard the sound of a screaming monkey resounding from just outside the fence line. Now, since primates don’t swing from the trees in North Georgia, that could only mean one thing – a Pileated Woodpecker was nearby.

Much to my delight, it turned out to be a pair of these prehistoric looking woodpeckers, who were busy exploring and excavating holes in my neighbor’s backyard trees. These birds are about the same size as a crow. The female (below) only has a partial red crown and a black mustache on the side of her face…

…while the male has a full crown and a red mustache.

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but this fellow was just hammering away, sending bits of wood flying every which direction.

If you don’t get motion sickness and want to see him in action, just watch the video below. I’ll go ahead and give you fair warning though, that I had been hand-holding a large lens set up for awhile and the footage is all over the place!

You can tell he is hunting for insects.

You wanna know a cool fact about woodpeckers? They have a third eyelid that closes when they are drilling into wood to protect their eyes from debris. It’s like they came ready made with built in safety goggles! You can see it in the photo below, especially if you click on it to enlarge it.

While the male stayed at this one tree, the female flew to several smaller trees to investigate their food offerings.

I’m happy that I managed to get several fairly clear shots of this pair, because there were lots of tangles of twigs and branches obstructing the view. I mean really, who needs pilates when you can bend and twist and stretch and stoop to get pictures of Pileateds!