If a crow-sized black bird with a flaming red crest lands on a palm, pine or dead tree in Southwest Florida, you may be looking at a pileated woodpecker.

Pileated woodpeckers are among Florida’s largest and most striking woodpeckers, with mostly black bodies, bold white stripes on the face and neck and a large red crest.

Males have an extra red “mustache” stripe beside the bill. Females have the red crest too, but the cheek stripe is dark.

The bird’s size is one of the easiest clues: it is nearly crow-sized and noticeably larger than the red-bellied, downy and hairy woodpeckers commonly seen in Florida.

Look for the holes it leaves behind. Pileated woodpeckers dig deep, elongated or rectangular excavations into dead or decaying wood while searching for carpenter ants, termites and wood-boring insects.

Those holes are useful clues even after the bird has flown away.

Pileated woodpeckers use mature woods, neighborhoods with large trees and places where dead standing trees or large fallen wood remain available.

They are not simply damaging trees. Their feeding can help control insects, and the cavities they excavate later provide shelter and nesting space for other wildlife.

They are also noisy birds, producing loud calls and powerful drumming that can carry through a neighborhood.

If one is hammering on a gutter or reflective surface, the behavior may be territorial and temporary.

Woodpeckers and active nests are protected under federal migratory-bird law, so an occupied nest cavity should not be disturbed.

The practical takeaway: huge black woodpecker, red crest, white face stripes and rectangular holes in dead wood strongly point to a pileated woodpecker.