Black Woodpecker carrying faecal sac

In this photo an adult male Black Woodpecker is flying from a nest with a faecal sac in its beak. These sacs are made of a mucous membrane and hold the soft droppings of chicks. Woodpeckers usually keep their nesting cavities very clean, removing the droppings of their chicks in this way after feeding bouts. This great shot was taken by Jari Peltomäki in Finland.

Nest-Box Damage

Some woodpeckers will open up nest-boxes, which have been erected for songbirds, in order to get at the chicks inside. They usually do this by enlarging the entrance hole. Here is an example of a nest-box that a woodpecker (perhaps more than one bird) has worked upon. In fact, the whole dead tree has been a foraging site. It is hard to say which species did this, indeed several species may have visited this tree. Photo taken near Brzeszcze, Poland, September, 2010.

Gallery: Wryneck

Wryneck Jynx torquilla. Taken at Cley, Norfolk, UK, on September 13th 2010 by Andrew Knights. Wryneck's no longer breed in the British Isles but they do drop in regularly when on migration.

Quiz woodpecker 36

What is this species of European woodpecker ? And which sex ?