Finnish Focus On.....Grey Headed Woodpecker

Grey Headed Woodpecker. The woodland whistler. 

Grey Headed Woodpecker was a species I first encountered in Hungary, but on that trip views were less than satisfying.

Here in Finland the situation is a tad different. They are extremely common, but only in rural settings. I rarely see them within the city limits (though I have seen two on patch, including one day where I had all six of the winter resident species). 

At our cabin they are particularly easy, sometimes annoyingly so, as this particular male likes to whistle and drum on the first tree outside the cabin door, giving point blank views as he does so.

Grey Headed Woodpecker - Male

Any Woodpecker calling tends to wake me up when we are out there, so it's usually a case of me making the coffee and taking the scope out to see them whilst it brews.

When out in mixed woodland, agricultural land they tend to be one of the easiest species to both find and view. Highly territorial, they frequently whistle from all corners of their patch, and respond quickly if you whistle back at them. This usually results in a bird or two flying over your head and giving itself up as they declare their dominance from a nearby tree.

 

 

Like Great Spotted Woodpecker, and most Finns, they are often partial to a bit of heavy metal (Finland has more Heavy Metal bands per capita than any other country), and when they find a suitable spot, their drum can sound like machine-gun fire.

 

They're green, they drum and they whistle. Add a potato and a pint and they're basically Irish. Diddly aye.