Things you need to know about GREEN WOODPECKERS!
Channel: A Shot Of Wildlife
Date: 2022-03-22

A short, fact filled video about Green Woodpeckers. Including information about where and when they nest, what they eat throughout the year, how long they can live for, what their call sounds like and lots of other information that you might want to know.

The green woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in the UK and easily distinguished from the other two species as they are both black white and red and green woodpeckers are, well, green. Aside from this obvious colouring they also have a red cap, a black moustache and cheeks and pied black and white feathers on their wings and tail. Males can be separated from females as there is also a stripe of red in their moustache. They have a wingspan of 48 to 51cm and weigh around 180grams. 
Green woodpeckers can be seen in most inland habitats and as they rely on a mix of open areas for foraging and woodlands for nesting and roosting they are particularly common along meadow edges, in parkland and are regular visitors to some gardens. Their diet is mainly made up of ants which they dig from their burrows using their powerful beaks. Like other woodpeckers they are capable of extracting invertebrates from beneath the bark of trees but they mostly do this during the winter when ants are in short supply. During this time they will also eat pine seeds and fruits and they can become regular visitors to garden bird feeders. Its worth pointing out that they are opportunists and will also take the chicks of other birds if they find their nests. 
Green woodpeckers begin nesting in mid to late march when the male will begin to extract a hole, usually in the trunk of a deciduous tree. This process can take up to 30 days until a cavity big enough for nesting is made and after this the female will begin laying eggs. These are cream or white, measure around 3 cm in length and each female will produce between 4 and 6 of them. After all the eggs have been laid both parents share the incubation for 19 to 20 days. Both parents then feed the chicks in the nest for just over three weeks until they fledge. When the chicks fledge, they are a similar size to their parents but their green markings are mottled and less vibrant, they the dark face markings and their red cap is much duller. After fledging the parent birds feed their chicks for several weeks until they are independent. Green woodpeckers only nest once per year and outside of the breeding season they are mostly solitary. Sometimes pairs do stay together for multiple years, often using the same tree or nesting hole but during the winter they’ll have little if any contact with one another.
Green woodpecker numbers are stable in the UK and their distribution seems to be spreading northwards. They were first recorded nesting in Scotland in 1951 but they still haven't made it to Ireland. Scientists think that this may be due to their reluctance to cross large areas of water. They don't migrate and despite their relative commonness in the south of England they were only first recorded on the isle of Wight in 1910. There are currently around 52000 pairs of green woodpeckers in the country and they can be a relatively long lived bird. Their average lifespan is 5 years but they can live to at least 15 years of age. In the UK they are sometimes called yaffles because of their laugh like call. 

Some of the footage and images used in this video were obtained using creative commons licences. The originals and their licences can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jh_FUsnaQY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWvIDKf06tY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6nxI5tKNB0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I46Af1PuDs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZISZ3kK4Ig&t=49s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwkXhEei5DQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3QYxPfC1rg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbH_9dgPnbE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiX6tipgNr8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa5Lc3WLNXo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIT7vOJKiqA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0NJuZJNwrw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HobGT6XQL5c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klr9A2L7Mkw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaIi-RUS1RA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O1OL2_twK8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IzWv-rQ4iQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1damCsAAZ44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QwZxWII91g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkEzHV0oByA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10_Pw4TgN84
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSM9UhmzrQw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwKDUmGLu68
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-bBFZHnC20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbnGWzVVyFI
https://openbeelden.nl/media/714515/Groene_specht_bij_nesthol.en#download
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Picus_viridis_eggs.JPG
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Picus_viridis_MWNH_1268.JPG
Thumbnail image: by Alexis Lours - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Green_woodpecker_Franconville_2022_01_21_1.jpg

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