Listening for Lunch: How Woodpeckers Find Food
From David Lytwynec
Today I learned that Pileated Woodpeckers, while hunting for insects, will place an ear next to the surface of a tree, listening for insects moving under the bark.
It's not a great picture, but it does document what I observed.
Ellicott City, 10/17/2026.
I didn't know this either. I thought they just looked for likely spots and did some trial and error.
Here is a good article about the ways they listen and locate their prey if you'd like some more details.
6 replies
Pileated woodpecker!!! Actually yesterday for the first time, a pair hung out on the trees in our backyard, where I got a great look at them doing exactly this!
The downy and hairy woodpeckers do this too, albeit they'll fly down to our wooden back deck and listen for bugs there like goobers. Woodpeckers are awesome.
Ooo those guys are really cool too! They're so huge!
I saw my first one this year at the clinic, and then a few weeks ago I saw two on my way home from work.
They can really make that bark fly!
Very informative article, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on the ones in my yard to see if I can spot the behavior now.
I've got Downey and Nuttal's woodpeckers in my yard, mostly gleaning insects by picking out of cracks in the bark of pines. Not much pecking into wood going on. Lots of territorial/mating display related drumming in the spring time. This is usually on metal attached to telephone poles.
The Nuttal's are new to me. I like the spots on the chest.
I have Downeys and Red-bellied. I've only seen one Flicker in my yard, but we get a couple in the clinic each year, so they're around somewhere.