Hello Friends,
The boys and I have been watching/photographing a pileated woodpeckers at a
nest in the JMU Arboretum over the last number of weeks. Between yesterday
and this morning, we spent between five and six hours, photographing from a
distance using long telephoto lenses. This is no different than we have
been doing periodically since the nest was discovered. However, during
these last five or six hours, only the male bird would feed the young.
I was beginning to wonder if something happened to the female, but one of
the boys noticed a second pileated woodpecker in the distance while the male
had disappeared into the nest hole. Of course we cannot prove the second
woodpecker seen was the mate, but our question is whether it is typical for
the male to primarily feed the young? I would have assumed the feeding
responsibility would be a shared one, and we certainly photographed both
feeding the young in the past weeks. Have any of you ever noticed whether
feeding primarily falls to either the male or the female? And/or if there
is fluctuation between genders-male back/forth for hours, then female, etc.?
Several weeks ago I thought it was roughly every other trip that the male or
female would return.
Thanks for your input.
Kevin Shank
Rockingham County
