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Lesser spotted woodpecker

 

 

The smallest woodpecker not only in Estonian nature but in the world can be heard in deciduous as well as mixed forests, in parks or stands of trees, but there must be decaying and dried trees. With its little beak it can only work out nest hollows in soft wood. We will not meet them in large forests, but certainly in forest outskirts. The lesser spotted woodpecker is just a mite larger than a sparrow, weighs about twenty grams – nearly five times lighter than its relative (great spotted woodpecker).

 

The back plumage is uniformly black-and-white-patterned, the underparts are greyish without the red undertail of the great spotted woodpecker. Both sexes have the same plumage the year round. The male’s crown and forehead is garnished with a red patch, on the female’s crown the red is barely visible.

 

The nesting population in Estonia is estimated at about ten thousand birds.