Friday, August 26, 2011

Pileated Woodpeckers in Western North Dakota? Not a Bakken Story

The following woodpeckers are on the documentation list maintained by the  North Dakota Bird Records Committee:
  • Lewis’s Woodpecker
  • Acorn Woodpecker
  • Red-bellied Woodpecker (nesting except all the Sheyenne River)
  • American Three-toed Woodpecker
  • Black-backed Woodpecker
  • Pileated Woodpecker (nesting west of ND 3 except for the Turtle Mountains)
While driving around Williams County tonight looking for oil wells and development in general, I came across a small wooded area (Lutheran Bible Camp northeast of Williston, near Springbrook), and saw several woodpeckers. I did not have binoculars and I'm not a very good birder, but I am convinced they were pileated woodpeckers. They were very large and the head was shaped just like the drawings/photographs of pileated woodpeckers. They are known to next in eastern North Dakota, and my hunch is that they have moved a bit west. 

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