Phil & Phillis

[RVT1K]

Mr. and Mrs. Pileated

I have struggled over the years to get any image, let alone a decent one, of pileated woodpeckers. Despite the huge size, they tend to be skittish and never let me get very close.

Apparently the trick is to hammer on the porch behind my garage. I saw the female a.k.a. Phillis land in the tree and I figured "Well, it'll be gone as soon as I move". Well that never happened so I ran in the house and grabbed the camera. At some point the male a.k.a. Phil landed in another tree very close by. They let me get a bunch of shots but Phillis refused to get in better light.


Phillis hard at work:

And Phil:

 

[jeffashman]

Nice set! The important thing is that Phillis' face is in the sun. Apparently that leaf, too. Given how skittish they are, you did a good job. Have you thought about sitting in a pop-up blind near the trees they like to hammer at?

 

[RVT1K]

I'm pretty sure that's a piece of bark flying off the tree. She kept popping in and out of the shadows and I was trying to time things to catch her head in the sun.

These trees are in my back yard. I've seen them on and off all this year but this is the first time they let me get more than a couple of shots.

Now my next challenge is getting them in flight, they have a very dramatic black/white pattern on the wings.

 

[Lez325]

Lovely looking birds- I use a pop up hide and a 600mm lens for wildlife- with a 1.4 Teleconverter you can get in really close ( lens length wise)

May I ask what ;lens you used for, these shots?

Les

 

[RVT1K]

Lovely looking birds- I use a pop up hide and a 600mm lens for wildlife- with a 1.4 Teleconverter you can get in really close ( lens length wise)

May I ask what ;lens you used for, these shots?

Les

They are really cool to see and I'm very happy to get some decent shots.

These were taken with my D3 using my Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 and a TC17 1.7x tele-converter.

I do have a Tamron 300 f/2.8 and a 2x tele-converter but there is no VR on that one and it can be tough to shoot hand-held since its so heavy.

 

[PJM]

Nice captures. I have only ever seen one once and it was gone before I could even reach for my camera.

 

[K9Kirk]

Might not be the best light on the female but the colors throughout both pictures are very nice. Lovely images.