Just how many species of woodpecker are there in the uk?

Q

Dear Bird Watching, I am in danger of falling out with my best birdwatching friend over woodpeckers. She says there are three species of woodpecker recorded in the UK. I say there are four (including the Wryneck). But she refuses to accept that the Wryneck is a woodpecker. Please settle this argument. Claire Flett

A

How can we answer this as tactfully as possible? In one sense, Claire, you are correct, but in another, so is your friend. But in a third sense, both of you are wrong! Firstly, the Wryneck is indeed a woodpecker, though a rather anomalous one: looking more like a big, cryptically coloured warbler in some ways, and being a long-distance migrant. It used to be a regular and somewhat common breeder in the country (even having its own vernacular names, such as the Cuckoo’s Mate); but now breeds only in extremely small numbers and is most often seen as a scarce passage migrant. So, with the Great Spotted, Lesser Spotted and Green Woodpeckers, Wryneck makes four. On the other hand, there are only three species with the word ‘Woodpecker’ in their names.

However, the twist comes with the fifth woodpecker species on the British List (as maintained by the BOU): the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a North American species, which has only occurred in the UK once (on Tresco, Scilly, in autumn 1975).

Surely, in time, one or more of the continental European woodpeckers will cross the Channel or North Sea to reach us. Perhaps, a Black Woodpecker or the range-expanding Syrian Woodpecker, one day?