How To Attract Green Woodpecker?

Green woodpeckers like clear grassy areas like golf courses and large lawns. They best way to attract them is create thatkind of habitat. Birdfood isn't going to attract them.

www.rspb.org.uk/.../
Green Woodpeckers food is ants, ants, and more ants. They use their strong beak to dig into ant colonies and eat the inhabitants, as explained in this link. Much different to the Great Spotted Woodpecker that comes and feeds on bird feeders.

Regards,

Ian.

Morning Jake,
I would have said "buy a forest", which is similar to the idea of buying, say, a golf course, or a vineyard.

Put up a telegraph pole. But then, you'd need to put it up in your vineyard.

Honestly, I think you've already got the one thing that's most likely to bring a male Green Woodpecker into your garden: a female Green Woodpecker.

Dave

While a feeding station isn't a natural place for a woodpecker to feed, once it has found the confidence to do so, it could easily visit the feeding station. We have a greater spotted woodpecker that regularly feeds from the fat balls and sometimes the sunflower seeds.

See the link below to watch a short click from a Trailcam of a woodpecker on the fat balls, hammering its beak like it would into a tree, but into the fat balls.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/peak-rambler/51300193578/in/album-72157719483863918/

Mike

Flickr Peak Rambler

In reply to Mike B:

Michael B said:

While a feeding station isn't a natural place for a woodpecker to feed, once it has found the confidence to do so, it could easily visit the feeding station. We have a greater spotted woodpecker that regularly feeds from the fat balls and sometimes the sunflower seeds

Yes. GSW are easy to encourage into gardens. Even putting up a blue tut box will attract them. For green woodpeckers though, bird feeders and food scattering won't work.

I probably only see Green Woodpeckers 2 or 3 times a year in my garden, but every time it seems to be when the lawn has gone bone dry and hard after a week in the hot sun, and then we get a heavy rain, softening it all up. Then they come along pecking at the ground to get the ants or whatever out.

Maybe you could try a sprinkler on the lawn, I don't know if that will help

Thank you all for the advice,

For now though I think the best chance that I have of getting a Green Woodpecker is bathing in my wildlife pond, I have some footage of some birds bathing in it but I am going to save them for a compilation YouTube video of sorts. I've seen a trail camera pick up video of a green woodpecker bathing.

Thanks, again
Jake

In reply to JakeMicallef05:

Yes, any form of water feature will bring a whole range of bid species in. Ponds (with shallow margins) are the best option if you have space. 'Unlikely species' like sparrowhawks, warblers etc will come to them. The hot weather we've had just increases the chances of that.

Good advice from Robbo re water.
Water's pretty much our first suggestion whenever anyone asks us about attracting more birds.
And birds can (with respect to bird baths) tell the difference between fresh and not.

Good luck Jake.

Dave

In reply to Dave - CH:

Sounds good to me, I actually had a GSWP come down this morning to check out why everyone else was spalshing about in between two logs, wasn't sure and didn't end up taking a dip, but still cool. Also got my second video of a black cap having a bath too.

In between those logs is the return for the pump, I covered the liner in gravel which leaves about 2cm of water for the birds to splash about in, which they love to, and keeps the pond from stagnating.

What also surprised me is how mean male blackbirds are to eachother, yet so peaceful with other species, I've got a trail camera video of the blackbirds trying to take eachothers heads off whilst a robin and blue tit are bathing, then one of them flies back and starts bathing with them, strange.