Black Woodpecker

The black woodpecker’s hearing is so good; it can hear carpenter ants crawling inside a tree trunk. It pecks a hole to reach the ants with its strong beak and reaches out its long, thin, sticky and barb-equipped tongue far into the ant hill to catch the ants.

Appearance

Our largest woodpecker. Straight flight with sweeping wing beats in contrast to other woodpeckers, which fly in arches.

Similar bird

The size of a crow and completely black with a red mark on its head – unmistakable!

Sounds and song

The black woodpecker’s call is of a higher pitch than that of the green woodpecker.

Song

Contact Call

 

Warning Call

Drumming

 

Flight

Food and bird tables

Rarely seen at the bird table.
Primarily lives off ants, but also other insects and beetles.

The nest and hollows

The black woodpecker pecks out its hollow at a considerable altitude (five to ten metres). Will normally peck a new hollow every year. The entrance is oval shaped and the living space itself is often more than half a metre deep, sometimes as much as one metre. Even if both partners help out, it can take them as long as a month to peck out the hollow.

Distribution

Summer  Resident  Winter