27.09.2020 Animal Of The Week: Great Spotted Woodpecker

Hello Everyone,

This week our animal is the Great Spotted Woodpecker. It is the most common and widespread woodpecker in England.

Habitat

They live in forests, gardens, parks and other green spaces. They can become regular visitors to garden feeders if you have them. They perch on a variety of things including telegraph poles and more commonly trees.

Appearance

The Great Spotted Woodpecker is back and white with red markings under it's tail and on it's head. It is very distinctive but can be confused with the lesser spotted woodpecker, which is smaller and has slightly thinner markings.

Diet

The great spotted woodpecker is omnivorous. It can eat beetle larvae and other invertebrates including adult beetles, ants and spiders. They can raid smaller bird's nests for their eggs or chicks. In terms of plants, they can eat tree sap, buds and berries. They are regulars to garden feeders.

Nesting

The Great Spotted Woodpecker nests in trees. They chisel a hole and although this isn't lined, the wood chips from the chiseling may fall into the hole to form some sort of rough nest. The holes are usually 30cm (1ft) high and not any higher than 8m (26ft).

I hope you have found this post both interesting and informative. Thank you for reading this. Let us know in the comments if you see them in your gardens, I do and I think they are beautiful!

Sources:
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/birds/woodpeckers-cuckoo-kingfisher-and-waxwing/great-spotted-woodpecker
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/great-spotted-woodpecker/
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/birds/great-spotted-woodpecker/
https://ebird.org/species/grswoo

Images:
Great Spotted Woodpecker Perched on Tree is owned by Erik Karits (on pexels.com).
Woodpecker on a Tree Trunk is owned by Erik Karits (on pexels.com).

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