(56Kb wav)
| Picture ©2001, - Fishing in Wales |
Great Spotted Woodpecker - Dendrocopos Picoides major
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Not quite the largest of our native woodpecker species it has boldly pied plumage with large white wing patches. Like the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker it has a white chest and cheeks, with a black crown. Males have a red patch to the neck which is absent in the females, in young birds both sexes have a pinkish neck patch. In adults both sexes have a red tinged rump. The most widespread and abundant of the spotted woodpeckers, found throughout Britain, Scandinavia and throughout Europe, in coniferous or mixed woodland and forest, parks, orchards and sometimes in winter in large gardens. Usually heard and sometimes rarely seen, it announces it's presence by a loud drumming sound as it searches for food or excavates it's nest hole in a rotten trunk or branch. Nesting in chambers with an elliptical entrance bored by both the sexes in rotting tree trunks, they lay 4-7 glossy white eggs in May, incubating them for about 16 days, fledging after about 20 days. Food are the grubs of wood boring insects, spiders, seeds, berries, nuts and occasionally other nestling birds Small populations exist on the Canary Isles, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Northern Turkey, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. About 15 subspecies have been described, each differing slightly in size, bill and colouration, but differentiation between these subspecies is difficult. Typically northern species are larger with shorter, stouter bills and whiter undersides.
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