Range Expansion of the Pileated Woodpecker in North Dakota

During the 1998-1999 winter, 15 coworkers and I observed a female pileated woodpecker along the James River, southeast of Jamestown. Presumably the same bird was seen intermittently from 10 December 1998 to 3 March 1999. It was observed feeding at bird feeders and perched on windowsills of two buildings belonging to the U.S. Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (hereafter, Center), on an oxbow east of the Center, and in trees along the James River. Habitat surrounding the Center buildings and paved roads consisted of ornamental conifers, lowland fields of seeded native grasses, upland areas of mixed tame and native grasses, wetlands, an oxbow, and the James River. The stretch of the James River near the Center is bordered by live and dead box elder, green ash, choke cherry (Prunus virginiana), and American elm. Many elms had Dutch elm disease. I recorded a female pileated woodpecker on the 1998 Jamestown CBC in the aforementioned oxbow. The above sighting is the first documented winter observation of a pileated woodpecker along the James River and the first observation of a pileated woodpecker on the Jamestown CBC, which has been held intermittently 31 times during 1922-1999 (Fig. 2). The sighting is the farthest west that a pileated woodpecker has been observed on CBC's.