How to Attract Pileated Woodpeckers: Dead Wood and Suet

Here is how to attract Pileated Woodpeckers: keep dead wood, the single strongest draw, in a yard in or next to mature woods. That means standing snags, stumps and fallen logs full of carpenter ants, which the Cornell Lab lists as about 40 percent of the diet. Suet in a long feeder with a tail prop is the best way to bring one into view. If you live in open suburbs far from large trees, no feeder will reliably pull one in.

Pileated Woodpecker at a glance

What a Pileated Woodpecker looks like

The Pileated is the largest woodpecker most North Americans will see. The Cornell Lab describes it as nearly the size of an American Crow, black with bold white stripes down the neck and a flaming red crest. In flight it shows big white patches under the wings and small white crescents on the upper side of the wings. The flight itself is strong but slow and slightly undulating, which can make a flying Pileated look more like a crow than a woodpecker at first glance.

Male vs. female

Both sexes have the red crest, which makes sexing them easy once you know the trick:

• Male: a red stripe on the cheek (sometimes called a mustache or malar stripe) running back from the bill, and red that reaches all the way forward to the base of the bill.
• Female: no red cheek stripe, a dark stripe there instead, and a gray-black forehead in front of the red crest.

Pairs stay together on their territory all year, so if you see one regularly, watch for the second bird. The Cornell Lab notes that seeing more than two Pileateds together is rare outside the family period after fledging.

Juveniles

Young birds leave the nest in early summer and stay with their parents for a while. They look much like adults but are generally duller and less crisply marked. In late summer you may see three to five birds moving together through the woods, which is the one time of year a small group is normal.

Similar species

• Red-headed Woodpecker: much smaller, with an entirely red head (not just a crest), a white body and big white wing patches. It has no crest at all.
• American Crow: similar size and black, but no crest, no white on the head, and a very different flight and call.
• Ivory-billed Woodpecker: historically confused with the Pileated in southern swamps. Sightings claimed today are almost always Pileateds, which also show a lot of white in the wing in flight.

Sounds

You often hear a Pileated before you see it. The Cornell Lab describes deep, loud drumming and shrill, whinnying calls. The call is a series of loud, ringing notes that can sound like a Northern Flicker’s call but wilder. Drumming is slower and more resonant than a Downy’s. Logging what you hear in a sound app helps confirm a pair is nearby; see our guide on how to use Merlin Sound ID without getting fooled.

Where Pileated Woodpeckers live, and whether your yard qualifies

Honest expectations matter with this species. Pileateds need big trees. The Cornell Lab describes their habitat as mature deciduous or mixed woodland of nearly every type, from western hemlock stands to beech and maple forests and cypress swamps. It also notes they do well in younger forests with scattered large dead trees or decaying logs, and in suburban areas with substantial trees and woodland patches.

Audubon notes the species was once rare because of forest clearing but has made a gradual comeback since around 1900 and may be adapting to second-growth woods and people. The Cornell Lab reports populations steadily increased from 1966 to 2019.

In practice, your odds are good if:

• Your yard backs onto woods, a wooded ravine, a park or a greenbelt with large trees.
• You have heard their calls or drumming, or seen large rectangular holes in dead trees or stumps nearby.
• There are standing dead trees (snags) within a few hundred yards.

Your odds are low if you are in a new subdivision, a dense city center or open farmland with few large trees. Pairs hold large territories, so even in good habitat one yard may sit at the edge of a territory and get only occasional visits.

What Pileated Woodpeckers eat

The Cornell Lab lists carpenter ants as about 40 percent of the diet, and up to 97 percent in some individuals. Audubon puts carpenter ants at up to 60 percent. The rest is woodboring beetle larvae, termites, flies, caterpillars, other insects and wild fruit and nuts.

The feeding method is what makes the Pileated distinctive. It digs large rectangular excavations, which the Cornell Lab says can be a foot or more long, into dead or decaying wood to reach ant galleries. It then uses a long, barbed tongue to pull out ants and larvae. Those holes are so broad and deep, the Lab notes, that they can cause small trees to break in half, and other birds often visit them afterward.

Wild fruits to know

The Cornell Lab lists greenbrier, hackberry, sassafras, blackberries, sumac, poison ivy, holly, dogwood, persimmon and elderberry among the fruits Pileateds eat. That list is a useful planting guide, covered below.

The best feeder foods for Pileated Woodpeckers

Suet: the main draw

The Cornell Lab says Pileateds visit feeders especially for suet. That is the one food worth committing to. Good options:

• Plain rendered beef suet or suet cakes with peanuts and tree nuts. High fat matters most in cold weather.
• Nut-heavy blends in winter. Our roundup of the best suet cakes and blends compares ingredient lists.
• No-melt suet dough in warm months, since raw suet goes rancid and soft in heat.

Avoid suet mixes that are mostly cheap grain filler. Woodpeckers want the fat and the nuts.

Other foods they sometimes take

Pileateds occasionally eat black oil sunflower seed, peanuts and fruit at feeders, but these are secondary. Do not expect a tube feeder full of mixed seed to attract one. If you already feed peanuts or sunflower for other woodpeckers, a Pileated may sample them.

What not to offer

Skip bread, kitchen scraps and salted or seasoned nuts. Our guide on what not to feed birds covers why.

Choosing a suet feeder a Pileated can actually use

This is where many people go wrong. A standard single-cake cage is a small target for a bird that is 16 to 19 inches long. A Pileated props its stiff tail against the trunk as it feeds, and on a short cage its tail has nothing to brace against, so it flaps, struggles and often gives up.

What works better:

1. A long feeder with a tail prop. Tail-prop feeders are built so the bird hangs on the cage and braces its tail on a board below, just as it would on a trunk.
2. A feeder mounted on or against a large tree trunk. A suet cage screwed or strapped to a big trunk gives the bird the trunk itself as a tail prop.
3. A log feeder. A section of log with drilled holes packed with suet mimics natural foraging. Hang it vertically.
4. Placement near the woods edge. Pileateds are wary. Put the feeder where the birds can approach from tree cover.

Many squirrel-proof suet feeders use small cage openings or weighted shrouds designed for small birds, which can exclude a Pileated. Our suet feeder roundup notes which designs suit large woodpeckers and which are for small birds only.

Placement details

• Hang the feeder 5 to 6 feet or higher, within view of a window you actually watch.
• Keep it close to mature trees. Project FeederWatch suggests about 10 feet from cover as a good compromise between safety from hawks and giving squirrels and cats jump-off points.
• For window safety, follow the advice in our guide on how to stop birds hitting windows. A panicked Pileated flushed by a hawk is a big bird to hit a pane.
• Expect raccoons and squirrels to try for suet. A baffle on the pole or a cage around the cake helps; see where to put a bird feeder.

Dead trees, stumps and logs: the most powerful habitat step

If you do one thing for Pileated Woodpeckers, leave dead wood where it is safe to do so. The Cornell Lab stresses that dead trees are essential, both as food sources and as cavities used by many other species.

Snags

A standing dead tree, or a live tree with large dead limbs, is a feeding site and a potential nest or roost tree. If a snag is not leaning toward a house, driveway, play area or power line, consider leaving it. When a tree must come down for safety, ask an arborist about cutting it into a tall stub of 10 to 20 feet rather than removing it entirely, which keeps much of the wildlife value while reducing the risk.

Stumps and logs

Pileateds forage low as well as high. Old stumps and fallen logs in shaded, damp spots often host carpenter ants, and the birds will work them close to the ground. A few large logs laid at the woodland edge are one of the cheapest and most effective habitat features you can add.

Why ant activity matters

Carpenter ants in a stump at the back of the lot are Pileated food. Carpenter ants in your house are a pest problem to solve. Treat the house, but do not spray the woods and stumps. Broad insecticide use removes the food that makes your yard worth visiting.

Native plants that support Pileated Woodpeckers

Fruit is a meaningful part of the diet, especially in fall and winter. Choose plants from the Cornell Lab’s fruit list that are native to your area:

Large native trees are just as important. Oaks, maples, beech, hickories, tulip trees, pines and, in the West, Douglas-fir and western hemlock all support the insect life and eventual dead wood Pileateds depend on. Check a local native plant society or extension office to confirm species for your county.

Nest boxes and nesting: what to expect

How Pileateds nest

According to the Cornell Lab, nest trees are typically dead, in mature stands or even urban settings. Cavity depth ranges from 10 to 24 inches, entrance holes are oblong rather than round, and building takes 3 to 6 weeks. Nests are rarely reused. Audubon notes nests are typically 15 to 80 feet up and that both sexes excavate.

Old Pileated cavities are valuable to other wildlife. The Cornell Lab notes Pileateds battle for ownership of cavities with Wood Ducks, European Starlings and other woodpeckers, and abandoned holes later house owls, ducks, bats and more.

Can you put up a Pileated nest box?

NestWatch publishes a plan. Its specifications:

• Entrance hole: 4 inches
• Inside depth: 24 inches
• Floor: 11.25 by 11.25 inches
• Height: 15 to 20 feet above the ground
• Habitat: the interior of a mature hardwood forest, on a dead or live tree
• Spacing: about 330 feet between boxes
• Fill: pack the box completely full of tamped sawdust so the woodpecker can excavate its own cavity

Be realistic. Pileateds strongly prefer to dig their own nest in a dead tree each year, and a box 15 to 20 feet up in woods is a serious project that needs a ladder and safe access for cleaning. A box that Pileateds ignore may still be used by other cavity nesters such as owls or ducks where they occur. Keeping snags standing does far more for nesting Pileateds than any box.

Roost holes

Outside the nesting season, Pileateds sleep in roost cavities, often in hollow trees, and a single tree may have several entrance holes. If you find a tree with multiple large oblong holes, watch it at dusk.

A year with Pileated Woodpeckers

Courtship displays, according to Audubon, include spreading the wings to show the white wing patch, raising the crest and swinging the head back and forth. If you see this in late winter or spring, a pair is settling in.

Common problems and how to handle them

A Pileated is excavating a live tree near my house

Large holes in a tree usually mean carpenter ants or beetle larvae are already inside, often in decaying heartwood. Have an arborist assess whether the tree is structurally sound. Remember Pileated Woodpeckers are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so harming the birds or disturbing an active nest is not an option.

A Pileated is drumming on or damaging my house

Woodpeckers sometimes drum on siding, gutters or chimneys to advertise territory, or dig into wood siding where insects live. Check for insect infestation, cover the spot temporarily with hardware cloth or netting, and hang reflective flash tape. Offering suet away from the house can also help. Persistent damage may be a wildlife-control question for your state extension service.

Starlings are emptying the suet

European Starlings love suet. Upside-down suet feeders frustrate them because starlings struggle to feed hanging upside down, but that design is hard for a bird the size of a Pileated too. A better approach is to offer suet on a tail-prop feeder near the woods edge, away from open lawn where starlings flock. Our guide to keeping starlings and grackles off feeders has more options.

Suet goes rancid in summer

Raw suet spoils in heat. Switch to no-melt suet dough in warm months, or offer smaller amounts and replace it often. Clean the feeder regularly as described in how to clean a bird feeder.

Common mistakes when trying to attract Pileated Woodpeckers

• Using a tiny suet cage. A single-cake cage with no tail prop is awkward for a crow-sized bird.
• Removing every dead tree and stump. This removes the Pileated’s main food source.
• Spraying for ants and beetles outdoors. Broad pesticide use removes their food.
• Hanging suet in the middle of an open lawn. Pileateds prefer to approach from cover.
• Expecting quick results. Territories are large, so visits may be irregular, especially at first.
• Giving up in summer. Suet visits drop when natural food is abundant, which is normal. Visits usually pick up again in cold weather.

Sources

• Pileated Woodpecker, Audubon Guide to North American Birds
• Pileated Woodpecker nest box plan, NestWatch
• Feeding Birds, Project FeederWatch
• Suet Feeder with Tail Prop for Two Cakes, Birds Choice