Self Isolating, Species 2 - Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

Immature Great Spotted Woodpecker

Facts & Figures:

Population in 1970: 35,000

Population in 2019: 130,000

Change in Population: + 95,000

Percentage change: +371.4%

Length: 23 cm

Oldest: 12 years 7 months

Eggs: 4-6

Broods: 1

This pied woodpecker is by far the commonest and most widespread woodpecker in the UK, and is roughly the same size as a Blackbird.  However, the bill is much larger and more powerful than a Blackbird’s.  It’s population has increased greatly in the past few decades because of more food left out for birds in gardens.  This would have surprised bird-watchers in Victorian times, as the bird was in a long-term decline in the late nineteenth-century.  

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker

At home our first Great Spotted Woodpecker was seen on 18 September 1978, but now they are regular garden visitors, especially in the spring and summer.  When I started getting interested in birds in the late 60s there were no woodpeckers of any species in Ireland, but in recent years Great Spotted Woodpecker have crossed the Irish Sea and are now breeding in Ireland for the first time. 

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpeckers are predominantly black with two large white shoulder patches, and smaller squares of white on the wings.  When they fly they have an extremely strongly undulating flight, which is sometimes is referred to as a swooping, looping or a bounding flight.

Blurred, but gives an idea of the markings on the back

I thought only male woodpeckers made the well-known drumming sound, but when we are at Normanby Hall we could clearly see a female woodpecker drumming.  Male GSWs have a red patch on the nape of their neck, whilst a female’s back of the head is black all over.  Both genders have red under the tail.   The drumming is very brief, it actually lasts less than 5 seconds, and it fades away towards the end.  This is quite different from the much scarcer Lesser Spotted Woodpecker its drumming lasts longer than 5 seconds and is much higher in pitch, and it comes to an abrupt end.

Female Great Spotted Woodpecker

The drumming can occur sporadically on nice days in December and January, but it reaches its greatest intensity in March and April.  When not drumming, this bird makes a loud “pic, pic” call, which can be run together into a longer series of notes when the birds becomes agitated or excited.

In early June for about a week to 10 days the parents often bring their young into gardens and feed them from the feeders.  At first the young are often ungainly and clumsy as they try and negotiate the bird feeders.  The male tends to look after a couple of the young birds, and the female another two.  After 10 days the young birds will probably continue to visit the garden on their own.  The young birds are initially identified by their bright red crowns on their heads, but as the weeks pass the red recedes until it either disappears completely, or begins to appear on the back of their heads.  

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker [left] feeding a juvenile 

My experience is that after a few weeks the woodpeckers stop visiting the garden, although they may return in their winter months.

A drumming Woodpecker from last week in which I try and remember some of the facts of this species may be heard in a video, which I’ve now added to YouTube. https://youtu.be/F0LKFHL81RY