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Greater Spotted Woodpecker on the Wildlife Trail Camera

Some Tips and Resources to Help Capture Woodpecker Footage

The Greater Spotted Woodpecker ( Dendrocopos major) is a beautiful bird, even if it does move a little comically. Although there are three species of woodpecker in the UK, the Greater Spotted Woodpecker is the UK's most common woodpecker.

We'd say the Greater Spotted Woodpecker is very slightly larger than a starling. This woodpecker is predominantly black and white coloured with flashes of red on it's rump; the male Greater Spotted Woodpecker has a red cap on the back of it's head too, which is absent on the female. The male Greater Spotted Woodpecker 'drums' it's bill on trees creating that very distinctive woodpecker sound.

Woodpeckers favourite food is insects which live in trees. It's particularly fond of ants.

These birds have very long tongues which they use to extract insects from cracks, crevices and holes.

Woodpeckers make their nest in holes in trees, which they chisel out with their beaks.

This woodpecker will no doubt benefit from the Ash Dieback disease, as they do like to nest in dead wood. Their population increased with advent of Dutch Elm Disease, and it's thought woodpeckers may use dead ash trees as nesting sites.

To capture footage of this particular woodpecker, make sure your camera is looking at a dead tree. It's ideal if you can find a location with a lower dead wood perch between the camera and the tree.

Wedge peanuts in any crevice you can find in the wood on the tree and the perch. Then sprinkle some sugar - to attract insects.

It's also worth noting that if you hear a woodpecker drumming, you could try to find the tree. Male woodpeckers will return again and again to the same tree to make the drumming noise.

Further Greater Spotted Woodpecker Information