Pileated Woodpeckers live here year-round in the many dead oaks and show up for suet around November 1, disappearing in early spring to nest. While there's good live bugs to fill up on I don't see them again -- although they will call to me if I come out of the house wearing red -- until around August 15 when the parents bring offspring, usually one or two. Mom or Dad leaps smartly onto the suet cage and clings there to eat, and then returns to the tree and feeds the youngun via regurgitation. That's something to see. Then one day the kid nags for food but receives a sharp peck, which means "Get your own," and the younger bird practices making the acrobatic six-foot leap from tree to the suet cage. Pileateds live to about age 12. A couple of generations of these crow-sized birds have hung by their leathery black feet and eaten suet I am happy to give them because food equals love. (And if I cook for you I don't just love you; I'm crazy about you.) In these gray days their fabulous red caps make them my flying Valentines. Both genders have red caps but only males, like this one, also have red "mustaches."
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