(Dansk) Fuglebroche, Grønspætte

Description

Green woodpecker – with its 30-36 cm – a large woodpecker. It is recognizable with ist green back and the green wings, the red crown and neck and the black part around the eyes.

The male green woodpecker also has a red beak stripe. Generally the green woodpecker has a militant appearance with its gloomy face and the pricking eyes, and in that way it has an authoritarian and serious aura when it moves about.

The bird is simultaneously very shy though, and it is often seen sitting on the ground trying to find its food.

It lives on ants. It hacks into an anthill with its 10 cm long and sticky tongue, and in that way it can collect both the ants and their eggs.

The green woodpecker is spread in most of Europe, and it is moreover found in Western Russia and in some areas of Turkey. It drums rarely and weakly, compared to other species of woodpeckers.

In this country it breeds almost only in Jutland, and it prefers mixed forests with open and grassy glades.

The hole of the nest is build in dead trees, and the green woodpecker only has one brood a year.

The period of breeding starts in the beginning of May.
The green woodpecker is a distinct sedentary bird, and it is very stationary.