Red-Belly Woodpecker

The one that got away last weekend was a Pileated woodpecker. It was a male and it was posed a lot like this one. Only my photo was not in focus and try as I might, I couldn’t make it blog-worthy. The Pileated woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in the United States, except for the possibly extinct Ivory-Billed woodpecker. It is also the role model for the cartoon character Woody the Woodpecker. We saw it on Saturday at Stump Lake and we even went back there on Sunday to look for it again, but had no luck. This is the first time that I had seen a Pileated woodpecker and would have really liked to have gotten the shot. Instead as the photo for this post, I submit to you this picture of a Red-Belly woodpecker that we saw on Sunday near Gilbert Lake.