"You should notify the DFG. I read an article about people seeing one down in louisiana or some southern state, it was a huge deal or something. Im not sure if they are naturally out in Cali but who knows. They were supposed to be extinct like 50 years ago."

No, that's the ivory-billed woodpecker, which is probably extinct.  It was even larger and more vivid than the pileated.  It used to occur in the southern US and Cuba in the bottomland hardwood, cypress and some pine forests but couldn't adapt to the wholesale removal of all of those trees, which were mostly gone by 1900.  A few ivorybills were found in a tract of virgin timber in Louisiana in 1936 but they were exterminated when the timber was clearcut in 1942.  Those were the last definitely known from the US (a few ivorybills held on in Cuba  until about 1990).  There was a big wave of excitement when someone claimed to have seen an ivorybill in Arkansas in 2005, but no one has corroborated that sighting despite thousands of eyes looking all over that swamp for several years afterward.

The pileated woodpecker, which is being discussed in this thread, is much more adaptable than the ivorybill and occurs through much of the US.  It is not uncommon even in the hills of Yolo and Solano Counties.  It's a spectacular bird and always worth a mention when you see one.

Sean Barry