There is no sound like that of a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming its beak against a tree trunk in search of insects, seeds, nuts, eggs, chicks and even small rodents. The family name for the bird is ‘Dendrocopus’ and is a combination of the Greek words ‘dendron’ [tree] and ‘kopos’ [striking]. That seems appropriate. Resident here, the male bird is like nothing else. You will find a nesting hole in an old tree, neat and round, bored horiztontally into decaying wood for a few inches and then downwards up to 6-12 inches in depth.
![[photo: Wikipedia]](https://notesonaspanishvalley.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/great-spotted-woodpecker-photo-wikipedia.jpg)
[photo: Wikipedia]
5 to remember
el pico – the beak
un pequeño roedor – a small rodent
griego/a – Greek
apropiado/a – appropriate
horizontalmente – horizontally
[photo: RSPB]
Blackcap
Stonechat
Blackbird
‘Collins Bird Guide: The Most Complete Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe’ [UK: Collins]
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
There’s nothing else like the sound of a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming #Spain via @Spanish_Valley http://wp.me/p3dYp6-1Ri
Notes on a Spanish Valley 
You reminded me – we used to have a few woodpeckers around our house but we haven’t seen or heard them in at least a decade. Wonder where they’ve gone and wish they’d return. Interesting birds.
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Are American woodpeckers a different variety? SD
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Ours are a bit different than the one in your photo, not as decorative as the handsome fellow in your photo, but definitely the same family of bird. I do miss them. Sorry, I can’t post photos.
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🙂 SD
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