Bird Walk December 2026

Join local birders to gather long-term data on the presence and abundance of birds and changes in their populations. 

Meet at the Welcome Center parking lot. The walk travels over uneven terrain along forest and meadow trails and around the main house. Appropriate for birders of all skill levels. Dress warmly with good walking shoes or boots. A limited number of binoculars will be available. Please register.  Email Programming@hildene.org with questions. 

December Bird Note: Pileated Woodpecker

Winter shows clues left by the birds living in our habitat: tracks in the snow, such as those of the turkey; an impression of spread wings from a hawk landing on fresh snow; a nest secured on a tree limb; or perhaps elongated holes in a tree trunk made by a Pileated Woodpecker. With their powerful, chiseling bills and long, reverse-barbed tongues, the woodpecker excavates and scrapes carpenter ants and other insects living in a tree's heartwood.

The Pileated is the largest of the five woodpeckers common in Vermont. (Only the Northern Flicker is not a year-round resident.) The Pileated is a large, mostly black bird with white stripes around the head and a bold red crest. The male has a red stripe from the base of its bill; the female’s stripe is black. The undulating woodpecker flight pattern and size is as distinctive as its loud rattling call. The male Pileated excavates a cavity for his lady, but she may add finishing touches from the inside. The entrance hole is an elongated oval.