Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Abruzzo NP, Italy

This photo, taken by my fellow woodpecker enthusiast Paul Harris in mid-June 2007, is very important. It shows a Middle Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos medius with food in its bill at a nest hole in the Abruzzo National Park, central Italy. This species is very rare indeed in that area: this is only the 3rd nest ever found in the Abruzzo, the other two being found in the early 1980s.