Meet the British woodpeckers whose 'unmistakable hammering' is a sure sign that spring is on its way

On a clear morning — this time of year — the unmistakable hammering of a great spotted woodpecker is one of the first signs of spring. With its distinctive pied plumage and flash of red under the tail, the great spotted is the most common of our three native woodpeckers, followed by the much chunkier green woodpecker with its jaunty red cap and loud laughing call. The lesser spotted woodpecker is, as its name implies, smaller. However, the name has recently taken on a tragic meaning, as their dramatic decline means that they’re hardly spotted at all. A fourth species, the wryneck, was once quite common, but now rarely nests in the UK and is no longer considered a resident species.

Woodpeckers are members of the Picidae, an ancient family of birds in the Piciformes order that began to evolve 60 million years ago, a little after the mass dinosaur extinction. All woodpeckers drum, but the great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) — literally ‘tree striker’ — is by far the loudest. The drumming is carried out by both males and females, yet it is the male, distinguished by a red patch on the back of its head, that is the most insistent. Each strike of beak on timber is a message to females and any woodpecker in the vicinity that a certain territory is theirs. In their search for something suitably resonant, urban great spotted woodpeckers have been known to use gutters, drainpipes and even satellite dishes. One bird selected a public-address system at a racecourse — which was perfectly located opposite a rival male — and another made 200 holes in a Grade I-listed church near Braintree, Essex, until it resembled a sieve. In Devizes, Wiltshire, a collapsed telegraph pole originally thought to be a casualty of Storm Eunice was later linked to a huge woodpecker hole.

The great spotted woodpecker population has rocketed since the 1970s and now stands at an estimated 140,000 pairs. This species benefited from both an increase in dead wood after Dutch elm disease and a decline in starlings, which significantly negated competition for precious nest sites. In the summer months, great spots are often glimpsed hanging acrobatically from garden bird feeders. Always cautious, they have an amusing habit of shuffling to the opposite side of a tree, occasionally peeping around to see if they are being watched. This adaptation to feeding and habitat has increased their breeding success and they aren’t above drilling into other birds’ nest boxes to consume the unfortunate inhabitants. Among trees, great spotted woodpeckers will crawl up and down trunks searching for grubs and, besides drumming, will give out a distinctive ‘kix’ call that sounds a little like a squeaky dog toy.

Lesser spotted woodpeckers (Dryobates minor) are the smallest of our three natives and the original ‘lesser spotted’, the title used elsewhere as a prefix for something obscure. Now restricted to England and Wales, with an estimated 1,500 pairs left in the UK and a red-list conservation species, this small, sparrow-sized woodpecker is being monitored by the Woodpecker Network (www.woodpecker-network.org.uk). Set up in 2015 by Ken and Linda Smith, this initiative collects data on the remaining population using a range of methods including telescopic nest cameras.

‘One of the main reasons for the decline appears to be one of timing and the chicks not getting enough food,’ explains Dr Ken Smith. ‘They are being nobbled by climate change. Lesser spots nest a week later than many other woodland birds and, by the time the chicks hatch, the caterpillars on which other species feed their young have gone. In 2024, a wet May added to the problem, making it the worst breeding year on record.’

Lesser spotted woodpeckers are easily differentiated from their larger cousins by the chequerboard barring on their back and lack of red under the tail. They also deploy a quieter and more even drumming technique. ‘They’re notoriously difficult to find as they spend most of the time in the tree canopy. Even dedicated bird watchers can go years without seeing them,’ adds Dr Smith. The Woodpecker Network is now experimenting with thermal imaging and passive acoustic monitoring in known lesser spot areas to help locate the birds and their nests.

The green woodpecker (Picus viridis) is the largest of the UK woodpeckers and roughly the size of a jackdaw. A striking bird, with bright, mossy-green plumage and a yellow rump, the green woodpecker is an occasional shy visitor to garden bird feeders. It is most easily identified by its slightly maniacal ‘yaffle’ or laugh, which echoes through woodland in early spring. Unlike its kin, the green woodpecker rarely drums — apart from when excavating a nest site — and spends a good deal of its time hopping around on the ground probing for ants, which it gobbles up with its specially adapted beak and long, sticky tongue. Males and females look similar, but an adult male has more red in its ‘moustache stripe’. The strange, primeval cry they utter to warn other birds of their presence has attracted an imaginative list of local names — the most common of which is ‘yaffle’ — including yaffingale, laughing Betsey, yockel and yappingale. Other vernacular sobriquets, such as weather cock and rainbird, link the bird to its apparent ability to predict rain. Indeed, one theory suggests that the bird is able to recognise storm clouds, a skill linked to its hope that any rain will bring a feast of insects closer to the earth’s surface.

Over time, the birds have embedded themselves into folklore. The great spotted woodpecker was considered a guardian of the forest, protecting the spirits of the woodland. Meanwhile, the green woodpecker has achieved an almost mythical status stretching back to ancient Babylonia, where a mysterious deity, the Axe of Ishtar, was represented as a green-coloured woodpecker. In one story from Greek mythology, Zeus turned King Celeus into a green woodpecker after he was caught stealing honey from a cave. Similarly, a Roman myth describes how King Picus was comparably transformed after rejecting the advances of Circe. In ancient Rome, woodpeckers were used to predict the future based on which direction they were flying in and, according to Ovid, a spotted woodpecker helped guard Romulus and Remus, the founding twins of Rome. In more recent culture, the green woodpecker featured in the 1970s Bagpuss television series as the bespectacled Professor Yaffle, a carved bookend character, as well as the brand logo for Woodpecker cider, a reference to their once frequent presence in old orchards.

They are also one of the most specialised bird families. The woodpecker can land vertically on the side of a tree trunk and stay there with ease thanks to its strong, muscular legs and sharp claws. Their astonishing ability to knock on wood repeatedly without getting injured is still the subject of scientific debate. For many years, it was thought that the birds had spongy skulls. Yet a study published in 2022 showed that there is no cushioning and that, when it comes to all that hammering, they benefit from having a small brain. The long, coiled sticky tongue — another evolutionary, anatomical quirk — allows them to successfully spear and extract insects from deep within trees.

The best places to see woodpeckers are ancient broad-leaved woodlands, where there is plenty of dead wood. The lesser spotted seems to prefer birch and alder and has a strong preference for wet woodland, whereas the green woodpecker has a strong ecological association with the oak. The great green acres of the New Forest in Hampshire host all three species, as does the RSPB’s Arne reserve in Dorset — in other places, some detective work is required.

Wherever they are, woodpeckers play a special role as ecosystem engineers, controlling insect populations and making cavities that other species can use. They are also what is known as an ‘indicator species’. According to Gerard Gorman, author and woodpecker expert: ‘Woodpecker diversity is a first-rate indicator of the overall biodiversity and health of woods and forests, because if they are around and doing well, the habitat is probably in good condition, too.’