My Experience with Pale-Billed Woodpeckers and Quetzals in Costa Rica.

A Male Pink-Billed Woodpecker in Costa Rica.
(GWatt, copyright)

 Recently in Costa Rica I saw a bird so striking in its beauty that it is still hard for me to believe it exists.  No, I’m not talking about the spectacular Quetzal of the Cost Rican cloud forests, though I saw them on two different occasions.  I’m Talking about the Pale-Billed Woodpecker of Costa Rica.

I didn’t even know the species existed until a pair of these giant woodpeckers sailed over my head and landed in a huge dead tree.

Yes, I know this blog is suppose to be about Mid-Western wildlife, but it is the experience that I am about to describe to you that renewed my interest in wild birds.  Two weeks in the cloud forest of Costa Rica was a real inspiration: Thus this bird story.

The Pale-Billed Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in Costa Rica.  It grows to 37 centimeters (15 inches). Although the crest of the female is black, the male has a bright-red face, neck and crest.  Along with white stripes on each side of its back on a black background, the Pale-Billed Woodpecker is a study in contrasts of white, black and red.   The abdomen has striated striping which appears to be brown or rust-colored.

 Long ago I had observed and studied the American Pileated Woodpecker of the mature hard wood forests of the U.S. At first, I thought my two bird were that species.  The Pink-Billed looks like the Pileated but the head of the male is entirely red, not simply the crest. 

Each morning two of these large magnificent birds would fly over where I was sitting to tap-tap their way up and down and around the trunk of a large, dead tree nearby. Both male and female came quietly most mornings. I never heard vocalizations but their double tap is as distinctive as a call.