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Lesser spotted woodpecker

 

 

 

The lesser spotted woodpecker may well keep company with a tit flock in winter, and so on rare occasions an individual can also stray into a garden. There is a greater chance to meet the lesser spotted woodpecker in winter – it is difficult to notice a small bird quietly going about its business in leafy deciduous tree crowns. Although the birds nesting here are mostly sedentary, the winter number increases up to about twenty thousand in some years due to birds migrating here from the north

 

The lesser woodpeckers have the same black-white-patterned plumage the year round. They have no red undertail as the great spotted woodpeckers. The crown and forehead of the male is garnished with a red patch, the female’s crown has only a hint of red. They are the smallest of European woodpeckers, just a little larger than a sparrow, length up to 15 centimetres and weight about twenty grams.