Pileated Woodpecker Chicks (Seven Photographs)

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In an earlier post I showed this nest being built (See it here). We passed by as often as we could and one day we saw the female feeding the new chicks. She left and the male came by, he preferred to feed them inside the nest (the nest must be huge to fit three chicks and the two parents). These photos are all from a feeding by the female. Once the parent arrived a loud bee-like sound came from the chicks. There was about 10 to 30 minutes between feedings to start with and the pauses between them grew to as long as an hour and a half over time. Many photographers chose to wait for hours for their shots. I can understand why; intermittent clouds changed the light in some cases adding a color caste. Someone cleared brush to get a better vantage point (a waste of time in my view and more importantly destructive). The space around the nest grew a bit crowded over time, which was one of the reasons we did not hang around long when we visited. It was a friendly crowd, but still a crowd.