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As with Red-bellied and Downy woodpeckers, these cavity-nesting insectivores occur in most wooded areas north of the Coastal Marsh region. However, Pileated Woodpeckers are less likely to frequent urban areas, young woodlands, and highly fragmented forests.
photo Copyright © 1999 by Brian Miller
painting by Louis Agassiz Fuertes 1914
male (left) and female (right)
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These shrub-nesting insectivores (which turn to frugivory in the winter) breed statewide, even in small strips of Chinese tallow trees (Sapium sebiferum) on spoil banks in the coastal marshes. They avoid closed forests and are very common Louisiana breeding birds.
painting by Louis Agassiz Fuertes 1914
male or female (The red crown patch is seldom visible.)
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The unusual range of these shrub-nesting insectivores in Louisiana seems unrelated to the major habitat regions. Scissor-tails occur in the western parts of the Pine, Red River, and Coastal Marsh regions. They are rare near the eastern edge of the pine lands, but, like Greater Roadrunners, their easternmost breeding record was from Macon Ridge in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. This species is on the Audubon WatchList for Louisiana.
photo Copyright © 1999 by Bill Bergen
male (female has a shorter tail)