- Wildlife
- Birds
- Woodpeckers, cuckoo and kingfisher
- Green Woodpecker
Steve Waterhouse
About
The green woodpecker is a large woodpecker about the same size as a dove. Green woodpeckers nest in holes that they excavate in trees in broadleaved woodlands, orchards, large parks and gardens. They can often be seen hopping about on the ground on pastures and lawns, looking for ants and invertebrates to eat but they also climb tree trunks and have barbed tongues to help them extract insects from crevices in the bark. Green woodpeckers have an undulating flight.
How to identify
Green woodpeckers are unmistakeable: olive-green all over with a red crown and black around the face. Males have a red 'moustache' edged by black but females have an all-black moustache.
Where to find it
Widespread, although absent from northern Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Habitats
When to find it
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- September
- October
- Novermber
- December
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- September
How can people help
You can help to look after green woodpeckers, and many more of our common and rarer garden birds, by providing food and water for them - it doesn't matter if you have a big garden or live in a high-rise flat, there are plenty of feeders, baths and food choices out there to suit all kinds of situations. To find out more about encouraging wildlife into your garden, visit our Wild About Gardens website: a joint initiative with the RHS, there's plenty of facts and tips to get you started. To buy bird food or feeders, visit the Vine House Farm website - an award-winning wildlife-friendly farm which gives 5% of all its takings to The Wildlife Trusts.