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Description:
There are just
two black and white woodpeckers to be found in Britain (there
are none in Ireland) so identification is relatively straightforward.
One of the main characteristics is the red underneath the
tail. This is not found on the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.
As the names would suggest the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is
a small bird, about the size of a Greenfinch, while the Great
Spotted Woodpecker is about the size of a Starling.
Great Spotted
Woodpecker juveniles have red foreheads that are replaced
by black as they moult in the autumn. Adult males then have
a red nape but females have no red on their head at all and
all these differences in plumage are easy to see. Many Garden
BirdWatchers enjoy working out exactly which Great Spotted
Woodpeckers are coming into their gardens, male female or
juvenile?
Ecology & Behaviour:
There are probably
some 25,000 to 30,000 pairs of these striking birds breeding
in Britain. They do need woodland but that does not mean they
will not visit isolated groups of trees or even single ones
if they have nice dead wood on them with lots of grubs to
eat.
Hitting a solid
tree with your beak so hard that splinters fly ought to cause
the brain to rotate in the way that causes concussion in Man.
Not a bit of it. The evolution of the bird’s drilling
equipment has provided very sophisticated shock absorbing
adaptations involving the way that the bird’s beak joins
the skull. The stresses are transmitted directly towards the
centre of the brain and do not cause the knockout swirl.
When woodpeckers
hammer into wood to get at grubs they also have another anatomical
adaptation designed to help them feed. The roots of their
tongues are coiled round the back of their skulls and can
be extended a prodigious distance to harpoon insect larvae
in their tunnels. The Great Spotted Woodpecker’s tongue
protrudes 40mm beyond the tip of the bill.
Garden BirdWatch links
A 'Focus On' article on the Great
Spotted Woodpecker appeared in issue 8 of the Bird
Table magazine. Garden BirdWatch participants can download
a copy of this article from the participant only pages.
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