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Generally, most bird nests appear as woven, bowl shaped collections of dried grasses. A closer look at abandoned nests typically reveals a much broader assemblage of construction materials including leave stems, thin twigs, evergreen needles, lengths of yarn, strips of cloth—most anything that is pliable and compressible. Birds mix mud with bits of feathers, grasses and leaves (to keep the mud from cracking) to form a mortar used to tightly seal and strengthen their nests.

Birds have incredible sensory abilities. For example, they are able to calibrate and orient where the sunset is; they also can recognize and use star patterns for navigation purposes. Even more incredible, birds apparently have a molecule in their eye that helps them sense the earth’s magnetic field, giving them the ability to actually see and remember patterns of polarized light.

Warner Bros.’ cartoon factory fashioned their Woody Woodpecker character after the huge pileated woodpecker. However, its behavior is much less comical than “Woody’s” antics on the screen. 

Like other woodpeckers, pileated have a long, probing tongue for reaching into small areas in search of food. Pileated have sticky saliva and their tongues are lined with barbs that point backward—both adaptations to prevent prey from slipping off. Its tongue is so long that it wraps around the skull when it’s not in use. Big, rectangular holes in hollow trees are an indicator you’re in pileated woodpecker country.