Woody Woodpecker

We were walking on a road in the campsite when three huge Pileated Woodpeckers swooped over our heads in a flash of red, white and black and landed in the trees right ahead of us. They stayed around long enough for me to take some pictures and then took off again.

According to my Bird Book it was the Pileated Woodpecker that inspired the old cartoon Woody Woodpecker. You can see him at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeldv48RGv8 . It has a maniacal call that can stop a hiker in its tracks. (We never heard it.) It is up to 48 cm long while other woodpeckers are more the size of a robin - 18-24 cm.
Apparently they aren't seen very often because they require extensive areas in which to forage. They need about 40 ha of mature forest to settle. I feel blessed that we saw them so close up.

After they flew off we continued on our walk and came to the river. Suddenly a bird flew high overhead and then 2 more. Far in the distance across the river I saw one bird on a treetop. I took a picture so I could zoom in and see what kind of bird it was. After zooming in I saw 2 more. Sure enough, it was our 3 woodpeckers. Can you see all three?
This picture was taken with 18x zoom and then cropped to make it closer still. They were a long ways away.