The Second Ladybird Book of British Birds #12 – The Great Spotted Woodpecker
This handsome bird lives on the edges of woods, in orchards and large gardens.
That’s what The Second Ladybird Book of British Birds and their nests says:
Here I am on the edge of a wood and there’s a Great Spotted Woodpecker staring at me:
This one is a female, without the red feathers on its head:
I’m lucky to see them reasonably frequently coming to feeders in woodland.
This is the bird that “drums” by hitting a dead branch very rapidly with its beak, a sound which can be heard half-a-mile away on a still day.
Given the way they drum on wood in an energetic ‘eyeballs out’ kind of way, I wondered why their eyeballs didn’t actually fall out:
Eyelids like seat belts
Its food is nearly all insects harmful to trees, so the Great Spotted Woodpecker is a very useful bird, although it will sometimes eat the eggs of the other birds.
Again we have this obsession with usefulness which betrays the values of the author; I think Great Spotted Woodpeckers have an intrinsic value which has nothing to do with either their usefulness or their beauty. They are living things and part of the complex ecosystem of their environment. They deserve our respect.
This one is definitely suspicious:
More Great Spotted Woodpeckers
The changing of the guard The Woodpecker pair I've been enjoying watching have a routine. I need to watch them for many more hours before I can be confident in explaining it, but one calls from a tree, the other looks out of the nest, leaves, and then the calling bird takes its place. Here's… read more
Woodpeckers at dawn I'm not that keen on getting up early unless I have a purpose. I need to be driven by a need other than simply getting up early. I don't need any encouragement to stay up late. This is one of those early days. I got up hours before my alarm… read more
Bluebells and Woodpeckers For some reason I never did post this photograph in May last year. That's odd, because it's one of my favourites. A Great Spotted Woodpecker in a private woodland in Somerset, surrounded by Bluebells. It's a wonderful place. read more
Knocking on the door Great Spotted Woodpeckers are knocking on the door at this time of year. You can hear them drumming in the last remnants of woodland we have, where the large and old trees haven't been felled as a condition of the insurance needed for public access. I wouldn't wish being killed… read more
That elusive flight shot We discovered a Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos major, nest recently. It wasn't the obvious hole in the side of the tree which did it, it was the insistent noise from the chicks which made it blindingly obvious. Here's the male bringing in food to the nest. It's an opportunity to… read more
Great and spotted We've been spotted. There's a Great Spotted Woodpecker living its adventurous life nearby. Great Spotted Woodpeckers are large woodpeckers to us. They're actually only medium sized woodpeckers, it's just we don't have any of the large ones in the UK. Great Spotted Woodpeckers are closely related to Syrian Woodpeckers. They… read more
Pecking Wood The Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos major, is a wonderful bird. This is a female coming in search of food at the WWF reserve Lago di Alviano: The signs here have a picture of the male on them. How do I know? Just look at that patch of red on his… read more
Eyelids like seat belts Woodpeckers and headaches. Wouldn't you get a headache if you banged your head against a tree 12,000 times a day? Luckily for Woodpeckers the only ones who survived to breed have numerous adaptations to head banging. Despite their love of heavy rock and a guilty pleasure of liking later Status… read more