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Woodpeckers

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©Erica Olsen/FLPA

Green and great spotted woodpeckers are both thriving, and often visit gardens.

Britain has only three species of woodpecker, which are really quite different from each other. Most obviously, they differ in size: the green woodpecker is the size of a pigeon; the great spotted, the size of a large blackbird; and the tiny lesser spotted is barely the size of a great tit (and therefore very difficult to see!).

Woodpeckers are more commonly heard than seen, with the characteristic drumming of the male most often experienced in woods in late winter and early spring. The drumming is either a signal to rival males and potential mates, or the sound made while excavating a nest hole. Woodpeckers seem to make rather less noise when feeding.

Headbanging at up to 40 beats per second is obviously hard work, so woodpeckers have several special adaptations to cope with this behaviour. They have very strong neck muscles, and soft, spongy tissue around the base of their bill, which absorbs much of the force created by drumming. In addition, they have very sharp claws on their feet, and stiffened tail feathers, which enable them to climb up and down tree trunks, as well as hold on tightly when drumming. Woodpeckers also have very long, needle-like tongues, so long that the tongue is actually coiled up inside the skull. The tip of the tongue is also barbed, so is the ideal tool for getting at insect grubs buried deep in trees.

The green woodpecker is quite distinctive, both in size and colouring. They are usually first spotted sitting in the middle of a large grassy area. When they fly away, they flash their bright yellow rump and make their distinct laughing call – a ‘yaffle’. The sound of all woodpeckers is traditionally meant to signify the coming of rain, hence the name ‘rainbird’.

Telling the two species of spotted woodpecker apart can be trickier. The key difference is, of course, size, but recalling the older names for these species can also help identification. The great spotted, whose plumage shows large, contrasting patches of black and white, used to be known as the ‘pied woodpecker’, while the lesser spotted was called the ‘barred woodpecker’, as its black and white markings are less distinctive. And remember that two other tree-climbing species, the blue-grey nuthatch and the browner treecreeper, can be confused with the lesser spotted, especially if you get only brief views.

The best way to find the two black and white woodpeckers is to listen for their calls or drumming, especially in late winter and early spring. As well as drumming, the great spotted also makes a distinctive, metallic ‘chip’ sound. If you do hear a woodpecker, try to pinpoint the direction of the sound, and then scan up tree trunks and along branches with binoculars to find the bird itself. Early in the year, when there are fewer leaves on the trees to obscure your view, is the best time to look. In winter, there is a chance of finding a lesser spotted woodpecker by looking closely at roving flocks of tits. As they roam a wood looking for food, lesser spotted woodpeckers sometimes tag along behind them.

Our three woodpeckers have experienced very different fortunes over the past few decades. While numbers of great spotted and green woodpeckers are on the rise, the lesser spotted population has been in freefall. Fifty years ago, they were common and widespread in England and Wales, but today there are just 2,000 pairs in the UK, mostly in ancient woodlands in the south.

Meanwhile, its larger relative, the great spotted woodpecker, has taken advantage of our generosity by learning to come to seed and peanut feeders and bird tables. Here, it dominates the smaller birds, which will usually flee as it approaches. Nesting blue and great tits have good reason to fear this pied predator, as they will raid nest boxes to seize their chicks.

Britain used to have another woodpecker species – the wryneck – but this has become extinct as a breeding bird and now breeds only in continental Europe. Of the ten woodpecker species that occur in Europe, just four managed to cross the Channel and recolonise Britain since they were driven out by the last Ice Age. Amazingly, Europe’s largest species, the black woodpecker, is found as close to the UK as Calais but has never made the short flight over to our shores.

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The scarce and elusive lesser spotted woodpecker is one of our most rapidly declining woodland birds.