Size: An adult great spotted woodpecker is 20–24 cm long, weighs 70–98 g and has a 34–39 cm wingspan.

Vocalisations: The call of the great spotted woodpecker is a sharp kik, which may be repeated as a wooden rattling krrarraarr if the bird is disturbed. The courtship call, gwig, is mostly given in the display flight. Drumming on dead trees and branches, and sometimes suitable man-made structures, serves to maintain contact between paired adults and to advertise ownership of territory. Habitat: It is found in a wide variety of woodlands, broadleaf, coniferous or mixed, and in modified habitats like parks, gardens.

Behaviour: The great spotted woodpecker spends much of its time climbing trees. Pairs of the great spotted woodpecker are monogamous during the breeding period, but often change partners before the next season. The holes in the tree for the nest is excavated by both sexes, the male doing most of the chiselling. Trees chosen for nest holes have soft heartwood and tough sapwood, the former often due to parasites or diseases that weaken the tree’s core. The typical clutch is four to six glossy white eggs. Each parent then takes responsibility for feeding part of the brood. The great spotted woodpecker is omnivorous. It digs beetle larvae from trees and also takes many other invertebrates including adult beetles, ants and spiders. In Latvia, there are 60,000-100,000 couples.

Interesting facts: People often wonder how a woodpecker can hammer away on trees without suffering from concussion. The Great spotted woodpecker can drill about 10-40 strikes per second. The anatomy of the skull is most interesting and to withstand the constant hammering, the base of the skull is made up of shock absorbent tissue. Another interesting feature is that, as with many other members of the woodpecker family, they have very long sticky tongues which enable them to reach out for hidden grubs. The Great Spotted Woodpecker’s tongue can extend to 40mm beyond the tip of the bill.

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