About
The green woodpecker is the largest of the UK’s woodpeckers. It nests in holes that it excavates in trees in broadleaved woodlands, orchards, large parks and gardens. It can often be seen hopping about on pastures and lawns, looking for ants and invertebrates to eat, but it will also climb tree trunks and has a barbed tongue to help it extract insects from crevices in the bark....
Any one who has ever taught a bird watching class or led groups of beginners will be familiar with the rare birds seen by their group. And sooner or later one of them is bound to report ‘ a brilliant yellow bird with a bright red head’. And they are usually convinced it is some sort of tropical bird – it must be really rare. But it is a sighting of this bird, which...