For many years I've tried to find a good opportunity to photograph Pileated Woodpeckers and have been unsuccessful. That drought came to an end a little while back.

It was definitely a shoot that required patience. We found a nest and initially positioned ourselves to the side. Then the waiting started. One of the parents would arrive at the nest approximately every 30-40 minutes. Then there would be a flurry of activity while it fed the chicks for about 2 minutes. Then we'd wait for another 30-40 minutes. This cycled continued for several hours.

From my initial position:


I moved to the other side of the tree to use another tree as the background:


This was shot from up in a tree, across from the tree with the nest: