The Green Woodpecker is the largest member of the Woodpecker family, like the Great and the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. It can be found throughout England in deciduous woods, farmlands, orchards, heathlands and sometimes in conifer woods. Although it is called the ‘Green Woodpecker’, it actually looks more of a yellowy green colour on first sight.

The Green Woodpecker has quite a stocky-looking body and a long, powerful, slate-black beak. It has an olive-green back and a yellow-green rump. It can be recognised because it has crimson-red feathers on the top of its head and black feathers around its eyes. The male also has crimson-red feathers on both sides of its beak which makes it look like it has a red moustache.

Green Woodpeckers spend a lot of time foraging the ground for ants, but they can still be seen climbing trees looking for food. If it feels it is being watched, it will often move to the other side of the tree trunk to be out of sight. Green Woodpeckers often visit ants’ nests on the ground and they eat the ants by sticking their long sticky tongues into the nests. They also eat insects, beetles, caterpillars and flies and when they look for food on the ground, they seem to hop in a hunched-back position, but when they are alarmed, they stand very erect.