Great Spotted Woodpeckers
Great Spotted Woodpecker – Dendrocopos major
The great spotted woodpecker was one of my early target species when I settled on the area that the hide is now in. I had photographed them at other locations, but this often involved looking up at them (which never looks great in a picture) and/or trying to shoot through leaves and branches. So the thought of hopefully being able to get eye-level, clean shots was one that filled me with excitement.
Even though I would hear them in the trees most days that I visited the site, it was still a surprise at how quickly I was able to get a picture of them. Even more of a surprise was that my first picture was of both the male and female in the same shot!
Male and female checking out the first ever woodpecker perch
Getting to Know Them
Spending hours sat in a tiny pop-up hide I soon learned that they would usually announce their arrival before descending to the perches. They usually call when they are in the trees, with the call getting louder as they get closer, and they can be noisy birds! It also became clear that once at the perch, I normally had a while to photograph them. Unlike some of the small birds that usually fly in, grab a seed and go; the woodpeckers like to have a feast before flying away. This is one of the things I love about them, they give you time to get some shots, but also time to just sit and watch them. And it’s pretty special watching them when they are only 3 metres away! Sometimes (and I have also seen this behaviour in nuthatches) they will spend time on the perch not feeding, just sitting there barely moving. Maybe they’re just having a rest or letting the food go down, I don’t know why they do this. If anyone else has seen this behaviour or knows why they do it, drop a comment below.
One of this year's fledglings sheltering from the rain
Our Resident Pair
This year the woodpeckers re-used the nest hole from the previous year. Some years they will reuse a hole, and some studies have suggested that 25 per cent of holes may get reused. Back in spring I saw the male great spotted woodpecker chasing off a nuthatch that was checking the hole out. The encounter didn’t last long, there was no way the woodpecker was giving up the nest! Mum and dad successfully raised 2 chicks this year (just 1 last year) and the fledglings stayed in the area for quite some time, around 2 months. The youngsters would come to the pool for bathing and drinking, we saw mum and dad feeding them and we saw them squabble amongst themselves. We got to see first-hand that both parents share the workload, with both mum and dad ferrying food from the hide to the nest. They have given us and continue to give us many memorable moments.
One of the More Tolerant Species
Our male and female are surprisingly tolerant of activity outside of the hide. I have been stood outside by the pool and they have come down to the perches. And if I stay still, they will normally continue to feed. When you are in the hide, you can normally get away with moving your lens around carefully to frame them, and they don’t even seem put off by conversations from within the hide. They have actually turned out to be one of the easier birds to photograph and I have even been able to photograph them with a wide angle lens, but that’s a story for another day…
Male or Female?
Unlike some bird species, it is very easy to identify male and female great spotted woodpeckers because they are sexually dimorphic. Sexual dimorphism means that males and females are different in size or appearance, and in the case of the great spotted woodpecker, the difference is in appearance. The difference between the two is that the male has a red patch on the back of its head. Juveniles have a red crown, with a pinkish undertail.
Finding Great Spotted Woodpeckers
As I said earlier, great spotted woodpeckers usually announce their presence with their loud calls and of course, they also drum on trees. So if you are out in the woods or near big trees, there’s a good chance you’ll hear a woodpecker. In spring and summer they spend their time searching for insects under the bark of trees, and in autumn and winter their diet will switch to berries and nuts, and this is when you can expect to see them at your feeders more frequently.
Even though I have many pictures of our woodpeckers, there’s still an excited anticipation that comes with hearing them in the woods. They are such a striking bird, with those beautifully contrasting colours, and that red is just incredible!
Woodpecker Facts
There are an estimated 140,000 pairs of great spotted woodpeckers throughout the country, although their distribution doesn’t stretch to northern Scotland, and they are absent from most of Ireland.
The great spotted woodpecker is one of three species of woodpecker calling the British Isles its home. We also have the green woodpecker (Picus viridis) and the lesser spotted woodpecker (Dryobates minor). There is a fourth, the Wryneck (Jynx torquilla), but it is only an occasional breeder in Britain.
The oldest great spotted woodpecker recorded through ringing was 11 years and 10 months old.
Woodpeckers withstand G-forces of over 1,200G whilst they are drumming on trees. Fighter pilots can withstand 9G for only a few seconds at a time.
The earliest woodpecker fossil dates back to more than 25 million years ago.
Let us know if you have any interesting great spotted woodpecker stories, or if you are lucky enough to have them visit your garden.
Happy wildlife encounters!
