Tossed larvae

I see a Pileated Woodpecker only a few times a year, typically when I am running an unrelated errand. Encounters are just too happenstance to plan. Yet, my camera is handy just in case.

I heard an adult male Pileated Woodpecker call from a utility pole; it soon moved to a more promising birch snag.

It spent the first while exploring, broadening, and probing cavities.

Soon it found what were probably larvae of the Bronze Birch Beetle and collected them with its sticky tongue. Some are already stuck to its bill. 

When the woodpecker’s tongue retracts, larvae are tossed in the air and pile up on its bill.

Sated, the Pileated Woodpecker moves on.