If this bird is deprived of its first set of eggs, it at once excavates a new hole, and the length of time consumed in its construction is about twenty-five days. A curious habit is that even when it is incubating or brooding its young, this bird frequently taps in its hole as if excavating.
Vernon Sharpe, Jr. (1932), says that in Tennessee “for a nesting site a dead tree is invariably selected and preferably one of large size, from which the branches have fallen. The cavity is situated from 20 to 85 feet above the ground, with a depth ranging from 20 to 26 inches. Generally the four-inch opening is broader at the base and angular at the top, forming somewhat of a triangular shape. While incubating, this species will continue to enlarge the nest cavity, as was proved by personal experience.”
M. G. Vaiden writes to me that the pileated woodpecker is fairly common in certain localities near Rosedale, Miss. He has located seven nests in cypress, sycamore, hackberry, or sweetgum trees, at estimated heights ranging from 60 to 75 feet. His nesting dates range from April 14 to April 29.
Of the nest location, in Texas, Mr. Simmons (1925) says: “Cavity in upper part, usually 30 to 60 feet from ground, in solid trunk of live, sound tree, less commonly in dead or partly dead limbs or trunks, generally tall cottonwood, cypress, elm, or oak, on the edge of woods or in marginal timber skirting stream, and usually easily located by the half-bushel of big fresh chips scattered about on the ground below; tree 10 or more inches in diameter at cavity.”
Mr. Stockard (1904) says, of the 17 pairs that he watched in Mississippi, that the birds do not lay a second set after the nest has been robbed, but they remain in the same woods during the remainder of the season. He says of the nests:
The burrow is very large and requires in most cases about one month for construction, being commenced in this locality about the latter part of February. But it was very difficult to note the exact length of time consumed in burrowing, as the birds try so many parts of the same tree before striking one to suit their taste. The nest tree and other dead trees close at hand were often scarred from top to bottom. In two cases they began a nest, then seemed to start one in another place, and then returned to the former and completed it. * * *
The first nest, a burrow twenty-five feet from the ground in an old sycamore stump, contained one egg on March 22; March 26 it contained three, and on April 1, when the set was removed, it consisted of four slightly incubated eggs. * * *
Only one pair was observed that had their nest in a dead tree which stood in an open field at least sixty or seventy yards from the wood. The female in this case flew about the nest tree and lit once on the upper part and again just over the nest hole while a person was in the act of climbing the tree. This was by far the most daring bird seen and, as mentioned above, because of the isolation of the tree, her burrow was unusually exposed for this species.
Eggs.—The pileated woodpecker lays ordinarily from three to five eggs; Audubon (1842) claims to have found six. The eggs vary from ovate, the commonest shape, to elliptical-ovate; some are even quite pointed. They are a brilliant china-white and usually decidedly glossy. The measurements of 52 eggs average 32.90 by 24.72 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 35.70 by 27.00, 30.22 by 22.35, and 29.30 by 22.00 millimeters.
Young.—Bendire (1895) says that “an egg is deposited daily, and incubation begins occasionally before the set is completed, and lasts about eighteen days, both sexes assisting in this duty, as well as in caring for the young. Like all Woodpeckers, the Pileated are very devoted parents, and the young follow them for some weeks after leaving the nest, until fully capable of caring for themselves. Only one brood is raised in a season.”