Three images of a male Pileated Woodpecker excavating a nest cavity and throwing/spitting out the excavated wood shavings.

Top Image: After several minutes of audible banging and chipping inside the nearly completed cavity, the Woodpecker emerges with a beak-full/truck-load of wood shavings.


He promptly throws out the shavings.


As the wind disperses the shavings, the Woodpecker gets ready to go in and pick up an other load. It seems that he or she spend several minutes excavating/chipping before throwing out numerous beak-loads of shavings. I'm not sure if they will leave some shavings as bedding material on completion of the cavity. The cavity is quite deep already and should be about complete. Will they nest here? Only time will tell as they often excavate several cavities before the "wife" decides where to nest. This location is quite close to a trail with lots of traffic; hence, we are keeping our fingers crossed that this will be the location.