Leucistic Pileated Woodpecker by Greg Page

Greg Page was able to locate and take photos of a beautiful leucistic Pileated Woodpecker that had been seen at a park in Houston, Texas.

It all started when Greg saw a message by David Sarkozi on the Texbirds Listserv. David wrote:

I just got a call about an interesting bird, a mostly albino Pileated Woodpecker. I’m not familiar with the location, but it is described as a walking trail at the softball complex at Cypresswood and Veterans’ Memorial in Houston. The bird was one half of a pair and was described as almost snow white with just a red crest. Sounds like a very striking bird.

If someone goes looking for it I would love to see a picture of this bird!

Lucky for David and the rest of us, Greg was in the area! Greg talks about his experience in an email he sent me:

I decided to go to the park and look for it. I walked around for over an hour with no luck. Just when I was about ready to give up and go home I heard a Pileated Woodpecker off in the distance. I walked real fast in the direction that I heard it. After several more minutes I saw a normal looking Pileated Woodpecker fly by and I thought I saw something white also but I was not sure. A couple of minutes later I found them in a tree. There was a normal male and female with the leucistic bird which is also a female. I was able to walk up close to the tree and get the photos. I followed them around for almost half an hour. I could not believe I was getting so close, I would have been happy to get a distant photo. I posted the location of the bird on the Texbirds List so others could try and see it. As far as I know no one else has seen it since I saw it. A few people have tried looking for it for several hours with no luck. That makes me feel very lucky that I was able to see it and get photos.

The Pileated Woodpecker is one of my favorite North American woodpeckers. To see such a unique bird in person and get photos of it is just awesome! Great job Greg and thanks for sharing them in the Burdr Flickr group. Might be the only time I get to see a Pileated Woodpecker like this!

See more photos of this Pileated Woodpecker in Greg’s Flickr set called Leucistic Birds & Animals. Also be sure to check out the rest of Greg’s photos on Flickr.

Leucistic Pileated Woodpecker by gregpage1465