Gallery: Wryneck

Wryneck Jynx torquilla, Europe's only migratory picid. Photo by Mladen Vasilev, Bulgaria.

Black Woodpeckers - changing over at the nest

A pair of Black Woodpeckers Dryocopus martius changing over at their nest hole. Photo taken in Hungary by Laszlo Becsy.

Woodpecker Feeding Signs

I have posted quite a few photos of the marks, mainly holes, that woodpeckers leave on trees when feeding. Many are diagnostic or at least can be narrowed down to a few species. Of course, knowing the range and habitat preferences of each species also helps when wishing to name the woodpecker that made any markings found. But sometimes, with some feeding marks, I would say that it is impossible to positively state which species made them. Here in this photo is an example. It is an old, rotten beech tree riddled with fungi and the holes and marks of a feeding woodpecker or woodpeckers. I took it in an upland forest in Slovakia where up to 8 woodpecker species occur and most of them could have fed here.

Recent Article on Woodpeckers

You may like to check-out an article by myself entitled A FOREST FRIENDLY SOCIETY in BIRD ART & PHOTOGRAPHY magazine (Issue 2, Summer 2010). This new mag is published in the UK. My article, which is illustrated with some great colour photos from around the continent, deals with Europe's ten picid species and how they are able to live together with minimum conflict.

Black Woodpecker foraging site

Black Woodpeckers Dryocopus martius are comfortable foraging at the base of trees. They usually do this when searching for carpenter ants, which have their colonies inside timber. Photo of such a site taken in NE Poland in May 2010.