The Green Woodpecker
Picus viridis



It is a typical inhabitant of tall-trunk forests with an abundance of dead trees in which it is easier to build a nest. Compared to other woodpeckers, the Green Woodpecker rarely drums on tree trunks with its beak. On the other hand it often sings and it is indeed its call, similar to a laugh, which draws attention to it as it is usually shy and wary and therefore not easily to spot.
It is a medium-sized woodpecker, characterised by its mainly green plumage with lighter underparts, a red crown and a broad moustachal stripe underneath the beak, which has a black border in males.
It feeds primarily on ants which it hunts avidly digging as far as 50 cm deep into ant-hills. Its presence is therefore proportional to the quantity of ants.
Like all woodpeckers it excavates its nesting hole in tree trunks using its powerful beak. To this effect these birds have developed a kind of “shock absorber” which insulates the brain from the dreadful noise of the excavation work.
The Green Woodpecker is able to perforate the hardest wood of a healthy tree.