Bird of the year, 2021

We learned, just this morning, that the American Birding Association has declared the pileated woodpecker its Bird of the Year for 2021. Since our suet feeders frequently are visited by pileated woodpeckers during the Winter, this is interesting news.

pileated woodpecker on suet feeder

Photo by J. Harrington

Additional information about this bird can be found at

• Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas
• Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
• All About Birds (Cornell Lab), and
• Audubon's Guide to North American Birds

We've occasionally found evidence of pileated woodpeckers' work on/in some dead trees in the neighborhood, although we've not yet noticed them foraging or nesting in any of the dead oaks we've found on the property during the past few years. Come Spring we'll try to remember to bring a pair of binoculars as we wander through our woods. We'll be looking up higher in still standing trees for cavities that look like the ones in the photo below.

pileated woodpecker cavity in dead tree

Photo by J. Harrington

The Woodpecker Keeps Returning

By Jane Hirshfield

The woodpecker keeps returning

to drill the house wall.

Put a pie plate over one place, he chooses another.

There is nothing good to eat there:

he has found in the house

a resonant billboard to post his intentions,

his voluble strength as provider.

But where is the female he drums for? Where?

I ask this, who am myself the ruined siding,

the handsome red-capped bird, the missing mate.

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