Thanks to volunteer Phil for his article, photos and videos...
Big Garden Birdwatch - Woodpeckers in the Garden?
Certainly you can see woodpeckers in the garden but they probably won’t be pecking wood unless you have some dead trees or logs. All birds will go where they can find food and gardens can provide suitable resources for all sorts of birds including some larger ones too. I don’t routinely see woodpeckers in my garden, so it is quite a treat when they come.
There are 3 species of woodpecker in the UK. The ones you are most likely to see are the great spotted woodpecker and the green woodpecker. This article is principally about these 2 species but I will mention the elusive lesser spotted woodpecker which has been known to visit gardens and is seen very occasionally at Pulborough Brooks.
Great Spotted Woodpecker
These birds are about the size of a blackbird with striking black and white plumage with a bright red lower under belly. Males also have a bright red nape and this patch extends to the crown in juveniles.
In winter gardens they will look for peanuts and fat particularly, but I have occasionally seen them eating from my seed feeder. They are agile and can perch upside down on feeders rather like tits They can also prize seeds from conifers after wedging the cones in tree bark. During the breeding season they can also use their powerful beaks to break into wooden nest boxes to take chicks and eggs.
Conifer seeds are a staple diet for some of the Northern Europe and Scandinavian great spotted woodpeckers and when the cone crop fails they sometimes migrate South and West, with some arriving in Britain for the winter.
As well as excavating tree holes for nesting, they can also use their beaks to chisel out insect larva in the wood and to extract sap. This is most likely what this great spotted woodpecker at Pulborough Brooks is about to do.
In winter and spring if you live near woodland listen for great spotted woodpeckers drumming. In my local woodland on a very recent walk I heard at least 3 great spotted woodpeckers drumming. Drumming, repeated tapping of a tree trunk with the beak, is not about excavating tree holes, but is the woodpecker’s equivalent of birdsong to proclaim territories, most likely at this time of year, and when spring arrives to attract a mate. Curiously, where bird song is usually a male preserve, female great spotted woodpeckers also drum. This bird in this photo appears to be a female – it has no red on the back of the neck – but it was seen and heard drumming just before the photo was taken.
A typical great spotted woodpecker drumroll last less than 1 second.
Green Woodpecker
This very striking green bird has a bright red crown and is the largest of the UK woodpeckers, being about the size of a small pigeon or collared dove. If you see them flying they have an undulating flight with a prominent yellow rump. Although it is not unusual to see them perched upright on a tree trunk it is far more likely that you will see them on the ground and the reason is that they love digging up and eating ants. In fact if there wasn’t a class of mammals called anteaters you could happily call these birds green anteaters. I have never seen green woodpeckers use bird feeders, but I have seen them digging ants out of my lawn many times. This photo shows one probably in the act of swallowing an ant before digging for the next one.
You can see a short video taken by Phil at this link which shows the same bird having a jolly good dig.
https://youtu.be/qjeHb06tFuI
Like other woodpeckers they will use tree holes for nesting so you could see them using their powerful beaks to excavate holes for the purpose and they will perch upright on tree trunks just like other woodpeckers, as per this bird at Pulborough Brooks.
In summer or early autumn you may see juveniles which have much the same plumage as the adults but are very spotted.
Green woodpeckers are not migratory so any ones you see will most likely be local birds and although these are fairly common in most of Britain they are absent from North and West Scotland and from Ireland.
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
These birds look like miniature versions of the great spotted woodpecker but without the red underbelly. They have a similar diet and lifestyle and are little bigger than a house sparrow.
Photo by Pete Hughes
They are very occasionally seen at Pulborough Brooks but are so elusive that I have never seen one anywhere. In recent years the sightings mentioned to me have all been in the trees by the North Brooks near the hairpin bend on the path to Jupps View and Nettley’s Hide.
There are estimated to be only 1000-2000 pairs in the UK. This is a very small population but the fact the the upper and lower figures have such a wide percentage variation shows how difficult they are to survey.
In the UK lesser spotted woodpeckers have a tendency to prefer damp woodland which includes alder. They drum in the same way as great spotted woodpeckers, but their drum rolls are usually longer lasting for more than 1 second.
One of our ex-wardens told me a few years ago that lesser spotted woodpeckers have been seen at Pulbrough Brooks on the bird feeders near the Visitor Centre in harsh winters, so if we have some very cold weather and you live in an area where they are known to inhabit, it is worth keeping an eye out.
That's great Ken. We seem to have a handful of sightings each year - enough to know they are still using the reserve but not enough for many of us to enjoy seeing them!