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Black Woodpecker

Black Woodpecker

Dryocopus martius

Identify the Black Woodpecker by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Black Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in Europe and much of temperate Asia, a crow-sized, all-black bird with a red crown and a pale bill. A non-migratory specialist of mature forests across the northern Palearctic, it carves large holes for nesting and roosting that later shelter many other birds and mammals, making it an important ecosystem engineer. Its role in Eurasia resembles that of the Pileated Woodpecker in North America.

Did you know?

  • It is the biggest woodpecker in Europe.
  • Its spacious nest holes are later used by many other animals, such as owls, ducks and pine martens.

Voice

Song
Call
Flight call
Alarm call
Drumming

About the species

Identification

A large, crow-sized woodpecker, all black with a pale ivory bill and pale eye. The male has a completely red crown, the female red only on the hindcrown. Its all-black plumage separates it from all other woodpeckers.

Family

Picidae

Size

Large (crow)

Colours

black, red, white

About the habitat

Extensive mature coniferous and mixed forest with large trees for nesting and plenty of dead wood and ant colonies, in lowlands and mountains; outside the breeding season also smaller woods and parks.

Diet

Mainly carpenter and wood ants, plus wood-boring beetle larvae and other insects; it hammers deep into dead or weakened trunks, stumps and anthills to reach them.

Behaviour

Usually alone or in pairs. It chisels large, conspicuous feeding holes and nest cavities in sturdy trees. It drums powerfully and has loud, ringing calls. Pairs share incubation and feeding, and the young stay with the adults briefly after fledging. Its flight is fairly straight with slow wingbeats, unlike the bounding flight of most woodpeckers.

Sources

Photo: Francesco Veronesi from Italy, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black Woodpecker taking an ant bath - HungaryCS4E4536 (15788008504).jpg

Sound: Benoît Van Hecke, XC704363, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/704363

Sound: Klaus-Jürgen Papke, XC407246, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/407246

Sound: Benoît Van Hecke, XC538300, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/538300

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC1136257, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/1136257

Sound: Alexander Kürthy, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dryocopus_martius_-_Black_Woodpecker_XC311605.mp3

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_woodpecker

See also