Signs: Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker

This dead spruce has been worked by a Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker Picoides tridactylus in search of bark-beetles. The bark has been pecked and also lifted up and off to expose the beetles underneath. This woodpecker often specialises in preying on such beetles (Ips and Polygraphus species) and increases in number locally when the insects are abundant. Photo by Gerard Gorman taken in southern Poland.