Garden visitor always has the ‘Wow!’ factor
Country Notebook
OF all the birds that regularly visit gardens, one of the most startling and impressive must be the great spotted woodpecker – and I’m pleased that one is back tucking in at a hanging feeder in the apple tree.
It really is a species with the ‘Wow!’ factor.
Swooping upwards it clings to the side, hacking into the mesh to get at the peanuts, and nothing dares mess with it – no bird is going to risk a jab from that dagger of a beak.
They are imposing birds and a striking black and white, with a flash of crimson beneath the tail as if they had accidentally sat on a newly painted pillar box.
This particular visitor is a male, as he has a distinctive square of red on the back of the head which the female lacks. He occasionally lands on the side of the willow tree at the end of the garden or the wooden telegraph pole by the lane, working his way up in an almost comic fashion with a jerky cartoon-like charm. Woodpeckers use strong toes, positioned pointing forwards and backwards, and sharp claws to enable them to grip on to vertical surfaces, and their short and stiff tail acts as a prop.
A combination of the way it clings to a tree and its shape fronted with a formidable bill makes the woodpecker instantly recognisable.
We have three breeding species in Britain, but only two of them are pied – the great spotted woodpecker and its smaller and far scarcer relative the lesser spotted woodpecker, which I have seen in east Dartmoor woodland but not in my immediate area.
The great spotted woodpecker is blackbird-sized and boldly marked and has a noticeable white patch on the shoulder. The lesser spotted woodpecker is more sparrow-sized, lacks the crimson under the tail and has a ladder of black and white plumage up its back. The first part of its name has also become the source of many a birdwatching joke!
The pointed beak is used to dig out wood-boring grubs and to chisel out nest holes, but also to ‘drum’ on resonant branches – a territorial ‘song’ rapidly tapped out by the male.
Green woodpeckers are the biggest of the bunch, but feed on the ground, mainly on ants.
Another tree climber that visits gardens is the nuthatch – which is small and woodpecker-shaped and has a blue-grey back, rusty-orange underside and a black stripe through the eye. They are more agile climbers than woodpeckers, being able to clamber not only up, but also down, vertical trunks. Quite a party trick!
I’ve no nuthatch visiting at the moment, but the great spotted woodpecker is treat enough. An early Christmas present for the price of a few peanuts.