Birds · Netherlands
Black Woodpecker
Zwarte specht · Dryocopus martius
Through my lens
Europe's largest woodpecker
The Black Woodpecker is about the size of a crow and almost entirely black, with pale eyes, a pale bill and a red crown. In the male the red covers the whole top of the head; in the female only the back of it.
It needs large, old forest, coniferous or mixed, and feeds on ants and beetle larvae from dead wood and stumps. Its big, oval nest holes are later used by other animals, among them owls, bats and Stock Doves.
You usually hear it first: a far-carrying "krri-krri-krri" in flight, a drawn-out plaintive call when it lands, and loud drumming in spring.
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