Ivory-billed Woodpecker and Pileated Woodpecker Descriptions and Pictures

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Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
Chester A. Reed

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers are 19 to 21 inches long. Wings 9.75 to 10.75 inches. Generally glossy blue-black, tail and primaries duller black or less distinct bluish gloss

Pileated Woodpeckers
R. Bruce Horsfall

Pileated Woodpeckers are 16 to 19 inches long. Wings 9 to 10 inches. Generally dull black, slaty, or brownish-black with a black tail

Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Rex Brasher

White stripe commencing beneath the eye, recessed from from base of bill extending back along side of the head, down side of neck, turning over the shoulder and narrowing to a point.

Pileated Woodpeckers
F.C. Hennessey

Black stripe between two white stripes on side of head. Upper narrow arched white stripe extends back from the eye. Lower white stripe from nostrils extending several inches along side of the head and widening down the side of the neck and breast. A third lower white patch wraps under the chin and merges with opposite side.

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
Gustav Mutzel

White ends of secondaries, inner primaries, scapulars under wing-coverts, and sometimes on the tips of a few feathers on flanks and rump

Pileated Woodpecker, Louis Agassiz Fuertes

Pileated Woodpeckers
Louis Agassiz Fuertes

White wing linings, at base of wing quills and basal half of inner wing feather webs. Primaries are sometimes white tipped. Skirted flank and belly feathers

Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Charles R. Knight

Pileated Woodpecker
Ernest Seton Thompson

Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Birds of the US and Canada, Thomas Nuttall, probably originally from a US Department of Agriculture Bulletin

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, Unknown Artist
Birds of the US and Canada
Thomas Nuttall, 1916
Probably originally from a USDA Bulletin

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker lifespan can be up to 15 years, rarely longer.

Pileated Woodpecker, John L Ridgway, Birds of Michigan, 1912, originally from US Department of Agriculture Farmers Bulletin No. 7 Biological Survey

Pileated Woodpecker, John L Ridgway
Birds of Michigan, 1912,
Originally from a USDA Biological Survey

The Pileated Woodpecker lifespan can be 10 years or more.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker, John L. Ridgway

The male Ivory-billed Woodpecker has a long scarlet-red crest with black front. The Female crest is wholly glossy blue-black.

Clear lemon-yellow iris

Pileated Woodpecker, Rex Brasher

The male Pileated Woodpecker has a bright scarlet-red whole crest and cheek patch at the base of the mandible. The female has a bright scarlet-red crest with black front.

Yellow, or brownish yellow iris.

Female Ivorybilled Woodpecker, Henry W. Elliot & Robert Ridgway

Male Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Henry W. Elliot & Robert Ridgway

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
Female above, Male below
Henry W. Elliot & Robert Ridgway

White, or ivory-white mandible, 2.5 - 2.75 inches

White nasal plumes.

Pileated Woodpecker, Female, Henry W. Elliot & Robert Ridgway

Pileated Woodpecker, Male, Henry W. Elliot & Robert Ridgway

Pileated Woodpeckers
Female above, Male below
Henry W. Elliot & Robert Ridgway

Blackish, bluish or dark horn colored upper mandible; lower mandible paler. 1.5 to 2 inches

Grayish upper nasal plumes edged with blackish bristle like feathers adjacent to forehead. Dull pale-yellowish on lower part of nasal tufts extending back of nostrils, more so on the female