John James Audubon wrote regarding the Pileated woodpecker that “It would be difficult for me to say in what part of our extensive country I have not met with this hardy inhabitant of the forest. Even now, when several species of our birds are becoming rare, destroyed as they are, either to gratify the palate of the epicure, or to adorn the cabinet of the naturalist, the Pileated Woodpecker is every where [sic] to be found in the wild woods, although scarce and shy in the peopled districts.” While safe today from epicures and the cabinets of naturalists, the Pileated woodpecker faces a plethora of other threats while holding out and yelling out its “cuk-cuk-cuk-cuk-cuk” in the large forest areas of eastern North America and Canada.
Plate 111 – Pileated Woodpecker
Plate 111 of the first edition of "Birds of America" by John James Audubon.