Grey-headed Woodpecker

The grey-headed woodpecker, or grey-faced woodpecker, is a Eurasian woodpecker 25–26 cm long with a wingspan of 38–40 cm, weighing about 125 g. The breast and underbody are pale grey. It is more demanding than the European green woodpecker in its habitat needs: it prefers deciduous forest with a high proportion of dead trees and feeds primarily on ants, though not so exclusively as the green woodpecker. Its nest is typically excavated in dead or severely damaged trees (Wikipedia, general species account).

Its distribution stretches across large parts of the central and eastern Palearctic to the Pacific and south to the Himalaya and the Malay Peninsula. Birds breed in May and lay five to ten eggs, raised by both parents; the young hatch after 15–17 days and fledge in 24–25. Its far-carrying territorial song is more melodic and cleaner than the green woodpecker's explosive laughter. In most areas where numbers are known it is in decline. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a resident forest bird that eats invertebrates, with a Moderate range and an inconclusive long-term trend (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).