‘Drrrrrrrrr’, ‘Drrrrrrrrr’. When the sound of a beak hitting wood at more than twenty beats per second echoes through the trees, it means that it is time for courtship and territory claim for our commonest woodpecker. The Great Spotted Woodpecker doesn’t sing as a courtship; it’s a drummer. This woodpecker’s head is built for drumming: it can move it rapidly; it has a boney helmet with a spongy lining wrapped around the brain; and it can contract the neck muscles milliseconds before impact to lessen the shock. That’s the way to avoid a headache!
The Great Spotted Woodpecker is the most common species of woodpecker in Britain and the one you will likely see visiting your garden feeder. Their plumage is a striking black-and-white, with a bright scarlet patch on the vent. The male has a small red patch at the back of the head, which is lacking in the female; and young birds have a red crown. Like most woodpeckers, they have a bouncing flight. Once the leaves are on the trees, these birds become increasingly difficult to see, as they cling to trunks and branches high in the trees. However, their presence is often announced by the call – an often-repeated ‘kek’ – or by their drumming display. They can adapt their diet from insects to seeds and nuts. This is why they visit your garden feeder.
Bredfield Wildlife Friendly Village’s Facebook group page regularly receives posts about Great Spotted Woodpecker visiting garden feeders. These posts are usually accompanied by quite appropriate superlatives! Here are four photos by local residents.
Photo of probable female by Stephen Stammers 
Photo of male by Max Brown
Photo of juvenile by Julie Crabb 
Photo of male by Stewart Belfield
When it’s not eating the seeds from your feeder, the Great Spotted Woodpecker will be eating insects – adult and lava – that it finds up in the trees. To help with this it has a sticky, coiled tongue which it unfurls to mop up its meal.
All woodpeckers nest in cavities in trees. However, the Great Spotted Woodpecker has the strongest beak and is quite able to go to work excavating its own hole, even in fairly hard wood. The other woodpeckers are more likely to use ready-made cavities or chip away at softer wood.
The other familiar woodpecker in Britain is the Green Woodpecker. It is the second most common and by far the largest. The name comes from the shade of the upperparts of the bird, but has other colours: a yellow rump; a red crown, and black ‘moustache’ (which has a red centre in male birds). You won’t find this bird on your feeder, but you might find it on your lawn, especially if it finds an ant colony there. Green Woodpeckers love ants! They have a loud, distinctive and familiar laughing ‘song’; sometimes called a ‘yaffle’.
Photo of male Green Woodpecker by Max Brown, Bredfield
The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is the smallest of our resident woodpeckers, and the least common. Populations of this woodpecker have fallen dramatically and you are now most unlikely to see this species in Suffolk. It has black-and-white plumage, like the Great Spotted Woodpecker, but it doesn’t have the large white ovals in the wing. The white stripes on the wings have a ladder-like appearance.
While we’re talking about woodpeckers in Britain, there is one more that should be mentioned; the Wryneck. This species once bred in Scotland, but it is now only rarely found on migrant passage in Autumn, usually in coastal locations. They don’t climb trees; they feed on ants, on the ground. The Wryneck‘s plumage is highly camouflaged, but quite beautifully so if seen closely. The name of this bird come from it’s amazing ability to turn it’s neck almost 360 degrees.
