The Great spotted woodpecker is a specialist in hunting for food in dead trees. Beneath the bark and deep inside the wood there are insects that spend all or part of their lives eating wood.

The rough bark of both dead and living trees is a good place for night flying moths and spiders that hunt at night to hide away during the day.

Holes in dead trees are used by a variety of small birds as nesting sites. The great spotted woodpecker itself makes a nest hole in dead tree by hammering out the wood.

The great spotted woodpecker is a very interesting bird with a lot of special adaptations.

They have a very distinctive way of ‘messaging’ other woodpeckers – they “drum” on tree branches, choosing a branch that gives the loudest sound. The drumming is mainly done by the males, but the females drum too. To make the drumming noise he hits his beak against the tree repeatedly. Does this give him a headache? No! The design of the skull is arranged to transfer the forces (acting as a shock absorber) which means that hitting his beak hard on trees does not affect him.  

The sound of this drumming is regularly heard around the villages. Take a look at this Woodland Trust page which has Great spotted woodpecker calls and drumming.

The tail feathers are stiffened to provide a prop and the toes are specially adapted to aid climbing up the trunk. The outer toe is reversed and the toes can be angled sideways to give a better grip.

The tongue is also specially adapted. Insects are the great spotted woodpecker's main prey. It uses its powerful beak to hammer holes in tree bark and then extracts beetle larvae with its long, flexible, sticky, bristly and barbed tongue. The root of its tongue is coiled round the back of the skull and the tongue can be extended up to 4cm beyond the tip of the bill to spear insect larvae in their tunnels.

Caterpillars, adult beetles and spiders are also taken. Beekeepers have also reported cases of the birds boring through wooden hives to feed on bee larvae and even the bees themselves.

In spring, the chicks and eggs of smaller birds are often eaten. Species that nest in tree cavities are targeted as woodpeckers can use their beaks to access these spaces.

Nuts and seeds are also an important food source, particularly in winter, and great spotted woodpeckers are quite frequent visitors to garden bird feeders.

This BTO video gives good views of great spotted woodpecker as well as the much less common lesser spotted woodpecker.