Green Woodpecker: distribution and range

The global range of Green Woodpecker falls almost entirely within the Western Palearctic region. It is widespread in Europe’s boreal, temperate and Mediterranean zones. In the north its range stretches along the Norwegian coast to the Arctic Circle in the west and to the Baltic coast of Estonia and Russia in the east. In Sweden numbers peter out in the middle of the country where the taiga zone begins and it is totally absent from Finland. Winter severity certainly influences distribution and local population densities. In the south it reaches as far as the tips of Spain, Italy and Greece, but is absent from Iceland and Ireland and indeed most islands including the Balearics, Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily. In central Europe it is a widespread and locally common species. In Slovakia it is found in suitable habitat everywhere below 800 m. In Hungary it is fairly common and widespread occurring wherever there is suitable habitat. In the UK it is fairly widespread but does not occur in most, treeless, upland areas. In many ways, however, it is the most adaptable of the three UK woodpecker species with strongholds in the southeast England, the New Forest, South Wales and East Anglia. Overall Green Woodpecker distribution closely follows that of the distribution of ground dwelling ant species. In Iberia the sharpei race is fairly common and widespread in all wooded habitat types but especially so in lightly wooded terrain such as cork-oak woods and dehesa, however, densities decrease significantly, in all habitat types, as one heads southwards. In fact, this decrease from north to south is true for all woodpecker species in Iberia.