How many Pileated Woodpeckers make a flock? If four is enough, we had a flock of them in our yard Tuesday morning. They're attracted by our suet feeder and several standing dead trees at the back of our lot. At one point the four birds were within 20 feet of each other. Two of those birds flew east out of the yard. Four or five minutes later, a Pileated entered the yard from the west. A fifth bird? We had two more Pileateds come to the yard from directions no bird had taken when leaving my sight. Two pairs displayed for a few seconds what I take as courtship behavior. In both cases two birds shared a cottonwood trunk. The lower bird pointed its bill upwards and gave a burst of wok-wok-wok calls. Two birds clearly were male. Initially, I was watching these birds from our second-story bedroom window, sans clothes and binoculars. I dressed and went out onto our deck to take photos. At this point we had two Pileateds in the yard, one on suet, the other working a tree. That latter bird flew to one of our wooden nest boxes and gave a series of knocks. A hollow bird box is a marvelous amplifier. We had at least one Pileated in the yard for about 90 minutes. We've seen three individuals together several times this winter. They arrive, usually a pair sometimes joined by a lone bird, about 7:30 a.m. The photo shows two birds near the suet feeder later in the day.
