The Woodpecker Network

GreatSpottedWoodpecker.jpg

A great way to find out more about our British woodpeckers get a copy of 'Woodpeckers' by Gerard Gorman in the RSPB Spotlight series

The 2019 Report on breeding Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers is published.

Thanks everyone for your contributions to understanding breeding Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers and for finding so many nests in 2019!

This year we have excellent and important data from 23 nests in 9 different counties – our best year since we started the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker project in 2015.

New research published. There has been a lot of attention recently on the impact of climate change on the timing of nesting and the availability of prey. We have been studying Great Spotted Woodpeckers since the 1980s and have used our data on the nests and defoliating caterpillars collected over the last 20 years to examine this. Our paper has just been published in the journal Bird Study.

It is great to see the coverage of nesting Great Spotted Woodpeckers in BBC Springwatch – they are brilliant birds.

We were interested to see that the woodpecker holes in the Scots Pines in Abernethy Forest tend to be orientated to the northeast. Our long-term studies of Great Spotted Woodpeckers in oak woodlands in Hertfordshire, southern England (see for instance Smith 2007) show a similar pattern even though the nest tree species and location are different from Abernethy.

A record 23 Lesser Spotted woodpecker nests are being monitored this year thanks to our dedicated observers. Young have fledged successfully from 19 nests (as of 7 June), one has been predated and we expect the last nest to fledge on 13 June.

So there is still time to find a nest and gather information.

LSW RichardJacobs leftcolLesser Spotted Woodpecker by Richard Jacobs 2019 LSW TimPreston 256Lesser Spotted Woodpecker © Tim Preston

Don't confuse juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers with male Lesser Spots - they both have red caps!

Dont confuse your woodpeckers

© 2016-2024 The Woodpecker Network

Website design and build by Garganey Consulting