Boring story: Why our maple tree has holes

A few weeks ago, we noticed that there were holes bored into the trunk of the maple tree in our back yard. That has to be the work of woodpeckers, I figured. Some of the holes seemed large enough to swallow any of the downy woodpeckers that visit our suet feeder daily.

The holes also seemed larger than what red-bellied woodpeckers could fashion, unless they worked long and hard. Could it be the work of a pileated woodpecker?

We’ve had those big fellas in our yard two or three times that we’ve observed in the eight plus years we’ve lived here. Friends were visiting at lunch yesterday when I looked out the dining room windows and spotted a pileated woodpecker hammering at the maple tree that holds up one end of our hammock.

Not making the connection to the holes in the tree, I thought only of excusing myself from the table, grabbing my camera and trying to get a few shots of the bird.

The bird flew to another tree, then headed off to our neighbor’s yard. The woodpecker flew back to our maple, pounding on a large side branch. Smaller branches partially obscured the bird on both opportunities, and the only relatively unobstructed shot I got is the one topping this post.

The photo, I discovered, shows the cavity into which the bird’s beak is attacking. I now can state with certainty that a pileated woodpecker, maybe more than one, is the culprit behind the holes.

I gladly accept those cavities and more if they continue attract such a magnificent creature as the pileated woodpecker.

As an aside, I’ve switched from pronouncing pileated as “py-lee-ate-ed” to “pill-ee-ate-ed.” The sources I’ve consulted say you can go either way. The word’s root is the Latin word for the pileus, the red cap given to freed slaves. Thinking back to the eight years of Latin that I studied in high school and college, I decided to go with the short i, just as I would pronounce pileus in Latin. 🦅