Large speckled woodpecker: description, habitat, photo

No forest can do without this bird. Loud and rhythmic sounds of a woodpecker shot are heard all over the district, especially in the spring. If you look carefully at the trees, you can see it. This bird is not from shy ones and sometimes flies "to make noise" in gardens, on trees under windows or telegraph poles. It is very remarkable and bright, it is impossible to confuse it with anyone else. But here kinds of woodpeckers can not be distinguished at first sight. Particularly common in our country is a large variegated woodpecker. Let us dwell on it in more detail.

Large speckled woodpecker: description

The fact that this bird is generally difficult to confuse with anyone is due primarily to its specific appearance and way of extracting food. A large variegated woodpecker in size is often compared to thrushes, they are approximately the same. The length of his body varies on average from 22 to 27 centimeters, females, as a rule, are less than males. The weight of the bird is small - only 60-100 grams. A large motley woodpecker knowingly received such a name, since it has a very bright, contrasting coloring of plumage in black and white and a red (and sometimes pink) podhvoste.

The male from the female can be distinguished by the color of the nape. All young individuals have a red cap on their head, with age it disappears. A red spot on the back of the head remains only in males. The top of the head becomes black. The cheeks of the bird, the forehead, the belly are white, depending on the habitat, their shade varies from bright and clean to beige or almost brown. A large motley woodpecker has a very decent wingspan, reaching almost half a meter (42-47 centimeters). It is also worth noting the shape of the tail. It is pointed (wedge-shaped), of medium length; Very hard, because it plays the role of a support when the bird moves around the tree. The structure of the paw, typical for woodpeckers, is zigodactile, that is, the two front fingers are opposed to the two rear fingers. The average life expectancy of a bird is about 9 years.

Large variegated woodpecker: habitat

This is a very common bird, which has a wide range of habitats - from the Canary Islands to Kamchatka and Japan. Most often, birds lead a sedentary life, less often - roaming. The latter is mainly due to habitats that are unfavorable from the point of view of the fodder base, so the birds are forced to make migrations (invasions) to neighboring regions. A large motley woodpecker (photo can be seen in the article) is very undemanding to the place of residence and takes root almost everywhere where trees grow - from taiga forests to city parks. Surprisingly, the choice depends not only on the country in which the birds live, but even on the regions. So, in Siberia and the Urals, the woodpecker chooses coniferous forests and mixed, but with a predominance of pines, and in the north-west of the country gives preference to pine forests, spruce forests.

What does the woodpecker eat in the summer?

Many still remember from school about the so-called forest orderlies. These include the wolf and the woodpecker. The bird prefers to settle in forests, where there are many old and rotten trees. Woodpeckers have a very varied diet. The predominance in it of plant or animal food depends on the season. It is noteworthy that males and females procure themselves food in various territories, and sometimes even in separate forests. The spring-summer diet consists mainly of insects and their larvae. First of all, it is, of course, various beetles, including those that feed on wood, as well as their larvae: barbel, bark beetles, stag beetles, weevils, ladybugs, and zlatki. A large motley woodpecker makes 130 beats per minute with its beak. This is a powerful enough force, not a single bug or worm will go unnoticed. Also, the bird's diet includes butterflies, including shaggy ones, their caterpillars, aphids, ants. A large variegated woodpecker does not disdain and carrion, if such an opportunity falls out. It was also found that sometimes these birds destroy the nests of small songbirds.

What do woodpeckers eat in autumn and winter?

In the autumn-winter period, vegetable, protein-rich food predominates . It includes seeds of coniferous trees, acorns, nuts. Of interest is the method of extracting seeds from cones. It is typical for all woodpeckers, but this species brought it to perfection. Initially, the woodpecker tears off the cone, then carries it in its beak to a pre-selected place - the anvil, which, in fact, is a clamp or a slot in the upper part of the tree trunk. The bird with all its power beats the beak on the cone, and then proceeds to the meal - pecking out the scales, extracting the seeds. One large variegated woodpecker can have about 50 such anvils, but it usually uses two or three. Therefore, at the end of winter a whole hill of cones and scales can accumulate under one tree.

When does the breeding season occur for woodpeckers?

For these birds is characterized by monogamy. They achieve sexual maturity by the end of the first year of their life. It is noteworthy that couples can stay together after the end of the mating season until the next spring. Either they fall apart and hibernate separately, but the next year they reunite.

The behavior of birds in the period of mating is very remarkable. Its first signs appear at the end of February - beginning of March and continue on increasing until the middle of the first spring month. Birds begin to choose a pair. Males behave extremely noisy, loudly poke and aggressively shout. The females respond to them, but less noticeably. Approximately in the middle of May, when the pairs have already been defined, construction of nests begins.

Nesting of woodpeckers

The tree in which the hollow will be located chooses the male. It should be not rotten, but with soft wood (for example, aspen or alder, less often oak or birch, larch).

A large motley woodpecker (photo above), living in the deciduous forests, prefers to make a new hollow every year. If the place of its dwelling is dense conifers, then the bird returns to the old one. The hollow, as a rule, is located at a height of up to eight meters and has a depth of about 25-35 cm, and a diameter of about 10. The construction is mainly done by the male, and the female only occasionally replaces it, it takes up to two weeks. Woodpeckers lay eggs in the middle of spring, around the end of April. In the masonry there are from 5 to 7 small eggs of white color, glossy. Both parents participate in the incubation, but at night only the male. The chicks hatch naked, helpless and blind for 10-12 days.

Small and large motley woodpecker: differences

• According to the color of the plumage. In a small species, the transverse band of black on the cheek does not reach the occiput and is interrupted by a white spot. In addition, it does not have a pink or reddish podhvostya. But on the head of a small woodpecker there is a cap - red with a black border in males and white in females.
• A large motley woodpecker and a small variegated woodpecker differ in the nature of the sounds produced. The first type of shot is very short and lasts about 0.6 seconds, it includes 12-13 beats, but it is almost impossible to distinguish them, since they merge into one continuous sound. In addition, it quickly loses its voicing, begins loudly, but quickly damps. A large motley woodpecker makes 130 beats per minute, its fraction is audible sometimes at a distance of up to one and a half kilometers. Sounds produced by a small woodpecker are more like the voice of songbirds, they are more lingering. And the fraction of it, too, is longer, but not as ringing as in the first species, lasts an average of 1.5 seconds.
• Small variegated woodpecker is somewhat smaller in size , its length is approximately 14-15 centimeters.
• They differ in their preferences for choosing a habitat. Small variegated woodpecker prefers deciduous and mixed forests, shores of reservoirs, marshes. He tries to avoid dark conifers.

Does the woodpecker have enemies?

It would seem that such a bird can not fundamentally be enemies, because, having a powerful beak, he can easily stand up for himself. But in fact, everything is somewhat different. Data on attacks on woodpeckers of birds of prey, although small, but still they are. In general, they are endangered by sparrowhawks, goshawks, and in the plains there are peregrine falcon.

Of land-based predators, marten and ermine are worth noting. Even the nests of woodpeckers, which, it would seem, are hidden and protected, are sometimes devastated by squirrels, a dormouse and a red evening meal (a kind of bats). It happens that woodpeckers are being squeezed out of old starlings by starlings.

The ability of a woodpecker to environmental conditions

Virtually all animals and birds have a certain set of characteristics that arose as a result of adaptation to the factors of the external world. Not an exception and a large motley woodpecker. Features of adaptation to the habitat are given below.

• Tough claws on the paws help to easily hold on the trunk of a tree or on thin branches.
• The rigid tail of the wedge-shaped form prevents sliding down the trunk; It is more suitable for climbing trees than for flying.
• A long strong beak helps to break through the bark of trees and make hollows for nesting in them, and also to obtain food.
• A long, thin and sticky tongue helps to get insects from the most inaccessible places.