Things you need to know about GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS!
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- Опубліковано 7 лип 2024
- From what they eat to where they nest, how long they live for and what noises they make. This video will give you lots of interesting information about the great spotted woodpecker.
There are currently around 30,000 pairs across the country and they are found in both Scotland and wales and the east of northern Ireland.
Great spotted woodpeckers are a similar size to a common starling with a wingspan of around 36cm and growing to weights of 70 to 100 grams. This species is sexually dimorphic with both males and females having black wings with white bars and mottled tips, white cheek patches, a red patch under their tails and cream fronts. However, males have a red patch at the back of their heads that is absent in the females and juveniles can also be recognized by the red cap that runs all the way along the top of their heads.
This species is mainly found in mature broadleaf woodlands but they can also set up home in conifer plantations and in parks and gardens if they contain mature trees. Although they are omnivores their main diet consists of insects and grubs which they extract from under tree bark using their powerful beaks and long tongues. They will also eat a small amount of berries and seeds and are becoming more common at garden bird feeders. Throughout the spring and summer they will take the high protein eggs and chicks of other birds, sometimes chiselling their way through bird boxes in order to get to them.
Male Great spotted woodpeckers are territorial and claim their space by drumming their beak rapidly on a hollow or dead branch. Although they are faithful throughout the nesting period, females often move around between breeding seasons and may select a new mate each year. Typically nesting starts around April time in a chamber that both birds have made inside a standing tree trunk. This chamber has a well rounded entrance hole and can be more than 30cm deep but is not filled with any nesting material. Each pair will produce between 4 and 6 glossy white eggs which are incubated for 10 to 12 days before they hatch. Although both parents take turns to incubate them during the daytime, only the males incubate the eggs at night. Once the chicks hatch out they have a veracious appetite and almost constantly beg at the nest hole for their parents to feed them. After around 20 days of being fed in the nest by both the male and female, the young birds are ready to fledge. Interestingly, at this point the brood split into 2 groups, half are looked after by the father and half by the mother. This post-nesting care doesn’t last for very long though and after a further 10 days the young birds will be completely independent and move away from the nesting site. Unlike a lot of other smaller bird species, great spotted woodpeckers only produce one batch of chicks per year.
Although great spotted woodpecker numbers dropped sharply around 200 years ago, over the past 30 years they have seen a widespread increase in numbers. Its not really clear why this is but it may be in part due to Dutch elm disease providing them with lots of feeding opportunities. Not much is known about the average lifespan of this species but the oldest bird on record survived to be just over 11 years of age.
#gardenbirds
#woodpecker
#britishnature
Some of the images and footage were obtained using creative commons licences, here are the originals:
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"Lesser spotted woodpecker" by Jevgenijs Slihto is licensed under CC BY 2.0
"Green Woodpecker" by StevoKebabo is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Eggs: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... - Домашні улюбленці та дикі тварини
Good video my friend
Have a happy weekend
Thank you!
Spotted ( geddit ) two on my neihbours feeder . SW Scotland . Beautiful birds .
Well done Liam, another well crafted educational video that was very interesting to watch, looking forward to the next one 😉
Thank you. I'm glad you found it educational and interesting and hope you've enjoyed the latest ones I've uploaded as well 😀
Great video, thank you.
Thanks
Saw one today . First time Westport lake SOT
Have a male who occasionally visits my garden but only for the redskin peanut's in the feeders. Leaves the other stuff. Lovely to see.
Very interesting, thanks very much. I love these short videos, so informative. Love your channel 🙏🐦🥰
Brilliant Video, Many thanks for sharing.
Cheers!
Beautiful video. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks!
I've got a male woodpecker in the trees behind me, on Southwick Hill, down here in West Sussex, England! Fantastic to see him, I've never seen or heard one in my life before
Hi Liam. I remembered seeing this posting a year ago. Revisited to check feeding habbits . I have just chased a male away from breaking into a blue tit nest in my shed wall next to the feeder. I was impressed at the damage he had acomplished in so short a time. The Woodpeckerss have been ocassional visitors at the Feeder in the last 10 years and have had the tits nesting in the shed cavity wall for decades. I will put up some tin plate to protect the hole in future (This afternoon) . Much as I admire the Woodpeckers, I feel I should protect the resident tits.
Lovely Great job
Definitely some facts there I wasn't previously aware of. Thanks for a great video 👍
Thanks. I love that I learn something new every time I make one of these videos so I’m glad you have too.
I am an American birder and love to hear about birds around the world!!
Pervert
Fantastic little video.
Thank you!
@@AShotOfWildlife Just a quick question: why might a magpie start attacking people in their gardens?
Thanks Liam for the Woodpecker film! Woodpeckers being one of my favourite birds always nice to watch. Have a good week! // Bertil.
Great video
Thanks Preston!
Great video thanks,watching some in the woodland behind my house,beautiful birds.
Excellent as usual
I have a male visiting next door's bird feeder, came here to find out all about them. Thanks
Another great video, Liam!
That was cool A very lovely upload ....❤
Thanks for the information! We have two woodpeckers nesting (I belive) in some trees adjacent to our garden.
The past couple of days they've been feeding on our feeders and on our tree.
It's so exciting! 🐦🐦
Hi Hannah, I've got the exact same thing - Mum's been feeding the 'baby' Boy.
He's lost his "down" feathers real-quickly & is now noticably bigger than Mum.
At one point I had THREE here at the exact same moment/week (they come here multiple times a day)
Lastly, I've even photographed Mum feeding her Son on at least 20-25 different occasions**
**(over the last 3-4 weeks) They arrive at 05.20ish & final feed is around 6.00pm-6.35pm
I've even made 15-20 mile trips, just to buy them some fresh RSPB-Suet-Blocks (Suet-Cakes)
Great video, thanks. These woodpeckers have just moved into the area I live in, Tipperary in Ireland, so they are spreading
It’s amazing to think that there were none of them breeding on the island of Ireland just 15 years ago.
Another brilliant video Liam. Clear and concise 👌
Cheers!
I see these quite often in Cliff Castle Park at Keighley you should visit one day Liam and thanks for the video mate.
Still waiting to see one here, Liam. I have heard them but that's it. They are elusive. Good video as usual. Best wishes from the Belfast Castlereagh hills of Northern Ireland
Another top informative video Liam!
Thank you!
Excellent. Your intros are just getting better and better! Lots of great facts as usual 🙂👍👍👍
Absolutely brilliant, I really enjoy your videos, thankyou!
Thanks Roberta, I’m glad you enjoy them!
Fab video, thanks Liam! I’m surprised how short their incubation period is. Also love your intro and the pun at the end 😆
Thanx alot! 😀 A Great Spotted Woodpecker just discovere that Id put coconut fat inside the birdhouse that i keep for small birds like the Great and Blue Tit and even sparrows and finches. Now it comes every day to scoff up fat and even flies off with a chunk in its beak! Ive lived here for 36 years and this is the first time Ive seen one so close up and it enters and exits the cage threw the mesh. If there are jackdaws or magpies in the area it hangs around until they leave! Sad it's partial to small birds n eggs tho 😞
Another excellent vid from this channel. Although I live in inner London, I have just been watching one of these beautiful birds on a tree on my avenue. I first heard the bark dropping on the street. I had never heard that sort of sound before. On looking out I saw a woodpecker really going at the tree. It's only in real life that you see how powerful those beaks are. They are like a machine, and you don't expect living creatures to act like that.
There have been huge efforts within the conservation movement to preserve the habit for birds like the woodpeckers, and like today I think that is baring fruit.
Never seen these before but i recently moved house and there is a pair of them that visits a bird feeder attached to my livingroom window every morning and evening.
This is really well done - Taught me a bit too!
Great. Thank you.
"Taps on a tree like this" 😂
Hey Liam nice vid
Whish I lived in Norfolk I looks like it has soooooo much wildlife
Hope you make more of these
Have seen a pair in my garden in Norfolk recently.
I've had THREE (at same time), in our part of Norfolk (wooded), on our Balcony & Suet-Feeder
Even taken pix (photographs), of Mum regularly feeding her new Son & he's now bigger than her !
Measurement (distance) is just one yard (36in) from our bedroom window, roughly arm's-length
He (Son), now visits about 15-16 times a day & makes for fabulous viewing**
** He usually stays here, feeding, for around 12-mins at a time & doesn't rush, unless disturbed (Fat Pidgeons)
@@hawnyfox3411 You lucky person. I have only seen the pair I saw once. Did manage to take a phone pic of one of them though.
Fortunately a male has not long started to feed in our garden in Sunderland. I've never seen a woodpecker in my life until now.😊
great video! loved the intro😂 I do love these woodpeckers but haven't yet featured them on my channel
You have and so much better than banging a stone . Great filming ..Woodpeckers are not easy to get clear clips
of ,so for information , filming and a great presentation👍.Thanks and enjoy the weekend ,Can't wait for the next.
Thanks Helena. The next one will be out next weekend (I’m trying to make them more consistently at the moment). I’m not sure which species to do, the Canada goose or perhaps the blackbird- I already have done a blackbird video but it was years ago and the quality and style is quite different to the current fact files I’ve been making.
@@AShotOfWildlife Oh I'm doing a book on canada geese.Normally I go to the city I was born in .Hundreds live there on rivers and the canals.Terrific birds and so social .Superb parents but
missed my annual visit to them this year due to travel restriction..Berlin has a few, Dusseldorf has many but no where beats my home city .. Look forward so much : I've many videos on them and believe me they are special birds.Have a great weekend Liam Thanks for the info :)🤗👍
I have one that visits my bird feeder in saltburn
Brilliant, must be great to get a regular close view!
I wish I didn't know that about them eating the chicks of other birds. I won't look at a great spotted the same again!
We have to shut some curtains in our house in the month of June to stop the chicks flying into our windows and killing themselves. Happened twice last year
👍
You have great videos 👍lots of information 👍new subscriber😃
Thank you! I’ve got a few videos lined up so hopefully you’ll enjoy them too!
I love your little info docs. I think you should include the latin name given Utube is international. A Green Woodpecker is known as a Gröngörling here is Sweden, for example. Thanks Laim!
Great video, I'm doing abit of research, I'm going to make a woodpecker out of cutlery 😁👍
A woodpecker out of cutlery? Tell me more.
Great photography, and video laden with fascinating facts. We have these every day in our garden, but the sounds they make have been the sharp call, and then pecking at the bark. Today I both saw and heard a bird with these colours drilling. I'm unsure, was it a great or a lesser? Thanks for taking us closer to nature.
Woodpecker fact:: At my friend's cabin , Pine Cove, just above Idyllwild you would normally hear woodpeckers all over the valley. Then not, but I saw woodpeckers picking up insects from the air, mostly termites. Seen seagulls in Finland doing the same, not termites, though, carpenter ants perhaps.
I see one in noak hill romford
i wonder now with the ash dieback aswell if we will see a further increase in the numbers.
Possibly mate, although around here they take down any trees that have ash dieback so they probably wouldn’t provide any new food or nesting sites.
I love these videos I just done 8,
This comes to show that just like humans birds are individuals as well. We had a Woodpecker couple that visited our feeding spot daily, as they had a baby WP and it grew into a "teenage"Woodpecker they'd bring him to the feeding spot and both parents would feed him. The funny part is that they'd do this for quite a long time, their "baby"was almost a grown up WP but he'd sit there right beside the food with his mouth open and make noises and they'd eventually give up and feed him😂 What a lazy baby. Eventually I think he realized that it's easier and faster to just eat by himself but it took a while for sure.
Thats so cute.
@@kimcroce1393 Woodpeckers are cute, and quite hilarious to watch.
Any tips on how to find them or attract them? I hear them all the time when I go to a woodland spot near my home but oonly saw one once and very briefly. I'm trying to photograph one for my records.
They do have a dark side : eating babies birds and feeding them to their babies.
That's why if you build a bird house, you need to made a really small hole and reinforce the front with iron.
I just heard a strange noise nextdoor. Looked over the fence to see a woodpecker pecking the hell out of a dead one lying by the back door. Is this normal?
How DO they know whats in the bark when they can't see through it??? When they feed its looks like they're not picking up anything, apart from using the tongue to feed!
That’s a good question. I don’t really know the answer but will have a look and try to find out.
@@AShotOfWildlife but most of what theyll find in crevices in my case is endless slugs and woodlice instead of grubs what i know they could be inside the wood.
Awww it's a shame that the woodpeckers did not come after the rock trick! Never mind though, I've had plenty Woodpecker facts drilled into me haha :)
How do i identify woodpecker feeding holes?
It’s a bit tricky to be sure it’s a woodpecker feeding hole but they’re usually 1-2cm wide and quite deep.
Everything there is to know he said but didn't explain why they don't get headaches.
This woodpecker killed baby tit, Parus major... Still hurts..
I live in northern Sweden, in forest. In a tree by the house we have tit house with babies, Turdus guys made nest, and another small black-white bird that sings beautifully. And woodpecker couple been coming often (we call them as Woody the female and Pecker the male). There `s feeder close to the tree and in winter/ spring we had fat on the tree.
I should have done something when i saw that Pecker is viciously chasing other birds away, different birds came to eat here. Once i saw Pecker or Woody, not sure, pecking on another bird house a bit further from the house.
So last evening, it`s summer now, plenty of food in nature, I saw Pecker killing a baby tit, just pecking and pecking, so cruel and merciless... Then he was on top of tit house, i chased him away. Cried and begged apology to the parent tit whom i saw soon afterwards.
I cannot sit by the tree and guard it all the time. Turdus birds are protecting their nest at least. Any ideas how to deal with this mess? How to let the woodpeckers know that they are Not welcome anymore? And why the hell kill baby bird??
Loved your Great video
Thank you for sharing
That's an immediate subscribe!
It seams that the spotted woodpecker is very close to the Syrian woodpeckers we have here in Israel.
Thank to you, I have noticed that each of the two parents I have filmed at this video, were actually feeding different offspring.
Thank you, keep on the great work 🏆
ua-cam.com/video/TcvXySDoUtw/v-deo.html
here's a thought .. less estuary english and more woodpecker drumming
What is estuary English? Lol