Woodpeckers

Nature’s drummers

Now is the perfect time of year to listen out for one of the most distinctive sounds of spring - the drumming of woodpeckers. There are three UK species; the great spotted woodpecker is the most common and the one I regularly see in the woods of Heddon and in our garden. It’s also the best drummer. The green woodpecker is our largest species but drums rarely with a series of soft taps. It prefers to display with a loud laughing call known as a yaffle. It often forages on the ground probing for ants in grassland areas like parks. I’ve occasionally heard or seen them around Heddon. As the name suggests, the lesser spotted woodpecker is similar-looking but much smaller and also much rarer than the great spotted. Sadly it has disappeared from much of the UK and I’ve never seen one. Its drumming is slightly slower and not as loud as the great spotted.

January to April is the peak time to hear great spotted woodpeckers drumming and calling (a sharp ‘yap’). Both sexes drum to defend their territories and attract a mate. They are also easier to spot when the trees are bare. They beat their beaks against hollow branches or tree trunks at a stunning 40 strikes per second! Their drumming can carry for half a mile and they are picky peckers, often moving from one dead branch to another trying out the sound quality. If they find a good ‘drum’ they may come back to it repeatedly. On one walk In Derwent Valley I kept hearing a loud, metallic ringing sound. Eventually I traced it to a male great spotted woodpecker drumming on a metal pylon! He had found a good way to get himself heard above all his rivals.

Great spotted woodpeckers are also some of our most striking-looking birds with smart black and white plumage and a bright scarlet patch under the tail. The males have a band of red on the back of the neck which the females don’t have, and youngsters have red on their foreheads. They are similar in size to a blackbird but different in shape. They often dominate bird feeders, scaring smaller birds away.

Their amazing dagger-like beaks are not just used for drumming but also for finding food and chiselling out nesting holes. Their main food source is insects hidden under the bark in dead wood, but they also eat tree seeds and will take the eggs and young of other birds. Great spotted woodpeckers breed around May to June and lay 4-6 eggs which hatch after a couple of weeks. As the chicks get larger and more confident they will come to the nest-hole entrance to beg loudly for food. I’ve been lucky enough to see a young woodpecker being fed at the nest-hole by a parent after being alerted by the sound. We also find a parent will bring a recently fledged juvenile to our peanut feeder to show it this easy source of food!

The good news is that the great spotted woodpecker is currently thriving in the UK with numbers and range increasing in the past few decades. Tree diseases have many negative impacts but may also benefit woodpeckers which rely on deadwood for food and nest sites. Increased understanding of the value of deadwood for nature means this is more likely to be left in place where safe to do so. Reduced competition for nest sites due to the decline in starlings, and increased food availability from garden feeders may also be factors.