The pileated woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in Canada. It’s name “pileated” means “capped”. It is nearly the size of a crow. This one is a female. The males look similar except that they have a red stripe on the cheek, that looks a bit like a moustache. We often see the results of a woodpecker whacking away at dead trees to get food for themselves (i.e. carpenter ants, wood-boring beetle larvae). They make rectangular holes and often you see the holes up and down the tree.
