Who made this mysterious hole?
This past fall I came across this rather large perfectly excavated hole in the side of this tree. These are classic holes made by a foraging Pileated woodpecker. Pileated woodpeckers are looking for insects such as carpenter ants and beetle larvae that are deep beneath the bark of the tree.
The holes are often square or rectangle in shape and look as if they have been made with a saw or chisel. The reason the holes are so regular in shape is because grain of the cedar tree is so straight and when the woodpeckers hammers with its bill into the trunk, long straight pieces of wood are excavated.
For those of you that have seen or heard of a Pileated Woodpecker, it is a very tall bird (16 – 19 inches tall with a large blood red crest on its head and white and black body plumage. To see one in real life is a sighting you will not soon forget.
