The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Dendrocopos minor



As big as a sparrow, this is the smallest of European picids.
It has a preference for coniferous woods but can live in any kind of mature wood where it hunts larvae which it finds inside the trunks of trees.
Like most woodpeckers it drums on the outer part of the wood and then drills holes with neat powerful blows of its beak.
Afterwards with the help of its hook-shaped tongue, it captures the fat larva.
These woodpeckers excavate their nest within trunks, preferably rotting ones, but they often occupy old natural cavities or those made by other species.
This woodpecker uses a noisy system to mark out its territory: it swiftly and repeatedly beats a hollow trunk and therefore its desire for courtship can be heard at a great distance.
It is the smallest of European piccids measuring a total length of 15 centimetres. It lives in coppice or mixed woods, often on the edge of beech woods where fruit-bearing trees, poplars and maples grow.
Like all woodpeckers the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker prefers to drill holes in the trunks of tender trees in order to obtain maximum energy performance from the minimum effort.
This woodpecker is an elegant bird of contrasting colours: it is black and white with a bright red forehead and crown.
It is difficult to see in its natural habitat as it is shy and retiring. It bounds from one tree to another and at a certain height. It draws attention to itself, like other woodpeckers, by its short rapid drumming on trees when hunting for food.