Northern Michigan Pterodactyl

On Christmas , right outside my door, I heard this loud Thump, Thump, Thump. Actually, it was more of a Knock, Knock, Knock...whatever, it was loud and I knew immediately before even looking what it was. It was a Pileated Woodpecker. A relatively rare sighting, and certainly uncommon to have such convenient viewing. The hole that he is jack hammering into the tree is about the size of a football. The bird itself is huge, probably about 2 to 2.5 feet from head to tail, with a giant wingspan. My guess is that he is building a home, because I don't think he would dig such a large hole just to find insects. Notice in the bottom photo the enormous claws that he (she?) uses to grasp the tree and get the leverage needed to hammer out such a big hole.