Eurasian Green Woodpecker
Picus viridis
Aves › Piciformes › Picidae › Picus
Conservation status: least_concern
The Eurasian Green Woodpecker is a large, striking woodpecker with brilliant green and yellow plumage on its back and wings, making it unmistakable in flight and easily the most colorful woodpecker in Europe. It has a distinctive loud, laughing call that sounds like cackling laughter and spends much of its time on the ground hunting for ants and other insects, unlike most woodpeckers that stay in trees.
How To Identify
It is a medium-sized woodpecker, easily distinguished by the male's lush emerald green plumage covering its back, which contrasts against black and white markings on the underparts.
Habitat
The Eurasian Green Woodpecker lives in parkland, woodland edges, and orchards.
Behaviour
The Eurasian Green Woodpecker exhibits behavior that includes hammering into ant hills with a sticky tongue and engaging in bouncy flight.
Did You Know?
Its 'yaffle' laughing call gave it the folk name 'yaffle' in English; it rarely drums on wood.
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