Birdpass
English
European Green Woodpecker

European Green Woodpecker

Picus viridis

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

  • Download on the App Store
  • Get it on Google Play

The European Green Woodpecker is a large woodpecker with vivid green plumage, a yellow rump and a red crown; males have a red-centred black “moustache”. Resident across much of Europe and western Asia, it is more often heard than seen thanks to its loud, laughing “yaffle” call. Unlike most woodpeckers, it spends much of its time on the ground probing for ants and rarely drums.

Did you know?

  • Its tongue wraps around the back of its skull to reach deep into ant nests.
  • It seldom drums, and is best known for its laughing “yaffle”.

Voice

Song
Call
Flight call
Alarm call

About the species

Identification

A mainly green woodpecker with darker upperparts and a yellow rump; a black mask around the eye and a red crown. The male has red in the centre of the black moustache stripe. It is told from Grey-headed Woodpecker by its much larger black mask and all-red crown (the Grey-headed Woodpecker has a grey head with red only on the male's forehead).

Family

Picidae

Size

Medium (thrush)

Colours

green, red, yellow, black, grey

About the habitat

Semi-open landscapes with old deciduous trees for nesting and ant-rich ground nearby – small woods, hedgerows, parkland, orchards, forest edges, pastures and lawns.

Diet

Mainly ants, especially meadow and wood ants, taken by probing into ground nests and licking up adults, larvae and pupae with an extremely long, sticky tongue; occasionally other insects.

Behaviour

Shy and wary, it is usually detected by its loud, laughing call. It feeds mostly on the ground, hopping between ant nests, and flies with deep undulations. In winter it may dig through snow to reach ants. Pairs excavate a nest hole in a tree and share incubation and chick-rearing. Very sedentary.

Sources

Photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:European green woodpecker (Picus viridis) female Barnes.jpg

Sound: Carlo Fracasso, XC787427, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/787427

Sound: Pascal Christe, XC1006421, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/1006421

Sound: Carlo Fracasso, XC919343, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/919343

Sound: Benoît Van Hecke, XC573514, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/573514

Text: Wikipedia (English), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_green_woodpecker

See also