Tryon Creek Naturalist Notes

Last weekend a visitor by the name of Phil Lavine stopped by the Nature Center and asked the question, “What does pileated mean”?  Well, if I had a nickle for all the of the times I’ve said the name Pileated Woodpecker, I’d be rich.  But, I had no clue what the word pileated meant, so we agreed to go to good ole’ Google.  We found that the name for this gorgeous woodpecker that calls Tryon Creek its home, comes from its flashy pileum.  The Merrium-Webster site told us that the pileum is the the top of the head of a bird from the bill to the nape.  Phil’s photograph of our version of “Woody The Woodpecker” is the perfect example of the Pileated Woodpecker’s red pileum.