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

Setting up and using sound recorders for detecting Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers

Mini & micro sound recorders
Wildlife Acoustics Mini & Micro

Over the last two years we have successfully used passive acoustic monitors to detect the calling and drumming of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers (LSW). We have now written this guidance note/protocol for Song Meters to detect LSW to provide more of the practical details for using the method with the Song Meter Mini and Micro from Wildlife Acoustics.


Passive sound recording has proved very successful in detecting LSWs at many new sites across Sussex, Hampshire, Somerset and Kent, changing our perceptions of Lsw numbers and distribution. There may be many more Lesser Spots than everyone thought. For more details of how we tested the recorders and our results see our paper in British Birds (Smith et al. December 2025).
We have focussed on using the Song Meter Mini and Micro from Wildlife Acoustics with which we have most experience but other brands of recorders such as AudioMoth and Titley are likely to be equally effective.

  • Our Guidance Note/ Protocol gives a step by step giude to using the recorders explaining how :
    These small waterproof recorders can be easily and discretely screwed to a tree in likely Lesser Spot habitat and left there to record for a few days.
  • The sounds recorded can then be analysed for presence of Lesser Spot calls and drums.
  • This can be done automatically via the BTO Acoustic Pipeline.
  • The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Monitoring Module is now freely available for everyone to use on the BTO Acoustic Pipeline. You can register here BTO Acoustic Pipeline
  • You should check all positive identifications from the classifier. Our Guidance on drumming LSW and GSW, explains how to tell them apart.
  • Any validated LSW  call or drum proves the presence of LSW. 
  • We provide the set-up routine for the Wildlife Acoustic recorders as an appendix to this protocol.

We know that many bird cluds and individual birders have sound recorders and are planning to use them to find Lesser Spots this spring. We hope our guidance will be useful. Please let us know what you find.

If you need help with your recorder or analysing the results, get in touch by email we may be able to help.

Huge thanks to Simon Gillings and others at BTO for developing and making available the Lesser Spot Monitoring Module free of charge on BTO Acoustic Pipeline.