[3] The English naturalist Mark Catesby described and illustrated the pileated woodpecker in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands which was published between 1729 and 1732.

Catesby used the English name "The larger red-crested Wood-pecker" and the Latin Picus niger maximus capite rubro.

[4] When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he included the pileated woodpecker, coined the binomial name Picus pileatus and cited Catesby's book.

[7] The pileated woodpecker is now one of six species that the International Ornithological Committee and the Clements taxonomy place in genus Dryocopus.

[8][9][10] However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) places the pileated and several others in genus Hylatomus.

The pileated woodpecker's breeding habitat is forested areas across Canada, the eastern United States, and parts of the Pacific Coast.

[17] From 1966 to 2015 the population of pileated woodpecker has, on average, increased by greater than 1.5% per year throughout the northeastern U.S., the Maritimes, the Ohio River Valley, and around the Great Lakes.

[19] Pileated woodpeckers often chip out large and roughly rectangular holes in trees while searching out insects, especially ant colonies.

Although they are less likely feeder visitors than smaller woodpeckers, pileateds may regularly be attracted to them in areas experiencing harsh winter conditions.

When abandoned, these holes—made similarly by all woodpeckers—provide good homes in future years for many forest songbirds and a wide variety of other animals.

Owls and tree-nesting ducks may largely rely on holes made by pileateds to lay their nests.

Other woodpeckers and smaller birds, such as wrens, may be attracted to pileated holes to feed on the insects found in them.

Predators at the nest can include American and Pacific martens, weasels, squirrels, rat snakes, and gray foxes.

[citation needed] Pileated woodpeckers have a large population size, and despite being nonmigratory, are protected under the U.S. Migratory Bird Act.