If your Internet browser understands this video file, you will soon be looking at a Pileated Woodpecker clip "embedded" on this page - but beware that you may not receive any sign that your computer is receiving this 6 Mb clip. Named "pileated_doubled.mov", it should appear and may begin playing (depending on your browser's QuickTime plug-in settings) in about 1 to 2 minutes over a broadband connection, but in 10 to 20 minutes over dial-up. If QuickTime software is not on your PC, you will be asked if you want Apple Computer to install it automatically. QuickTime was designed to play MOV clips, enabling you to use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to advance single frames. If your browser fails to show the clip, OR if you'd like to see other clips, OR if you'd prefer to view versions of the clips that don't require QuickTime, just click this ManyBirds Woodpecker link, then scroll to "Dryocopus pileatus - Pileated Woodpecker" to view several compressed versions of this clip. You can also click the ManyBirds logo. You may right-click (PC's) or control-click (Macs) the visible clip or its link to save the clip on your hard drive for viewing with the standalone QuickTime player. Scrubbing the scroll bar may be smoother and the frames may be sharper if the clip is viewed with the standalone QuickTime player.

The subject was recorded to miniDV tape on 27 May 2000 at 07:04:52 AM at Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, USA, by Malcolm Mark Swan using a Canon GL1 videocamera on a tripod. The camera was set to Canon's "normal (interlaced) recording mode as opposed to Canon's "frame" (progressive) mode. Pileated_doubled.mov plays at half speed for 2 seconds, so you see 30 frames per second (your time), and has no compression (other than the original DV color space). Although these half-frames are somewhat blurry despite the high shutter speed used, you see more frames of wings flapping owing to the interlaced recording mode. This mode is most useful for fast creatures with relative coarse markings or features.

When played on a computer, video recorded with interlaced frames shows prominent, narrow comb-like artifacts on moving objects when one inspects individual frames. The software utility JES Deinterlacer was used to remove those artifacts and extract 60 full-sized but half-resolution frames for every second (FPS) of original time. David Luneau's 25 April 2004 woodpecker clip was processed in a similar manner using different software. If you look for Pileated Woodpecker at the ManyBirds Woodpecker link, you'll find that Pileated_doubled.mov is offered only in the MOV format and is labeled "60 FPS MOV". The compressed versions of the original clip show 30 or fewer of the original 60 frames per second. The names of the compressed files are based on the original date, time, and tape. The slow-motion versions have identical names.

©2005 by ManyBirds