Have you heard the ‘laugh‘ of the yaffle yet?
The ‘laugh’ of the yaffle, better known as the Green Woodpecker, is what you’ll hear rather than the loud drumming that other woodpeckers do on a tree trunk. It does drum, but not nearly as loudly, and it is the rather comic ‘laugh’ that is heard the most. A shy bird, and although around all year, it is more often seen in summer when there are plenty of ants around. Ants are their main source of food, so an ants’ nest on the lawn will attract it. If it comes to a bird table or feeding station, you’re lucky. They are most common in old parkland but they also live in any habitat that has a mixture of large old trees and areas of cropped grass. They make their nests in the trees where they excavate nest holes with their powerful beaks. They are quite unlike the other woodpeckers, the Greater Spotted and the Lesser Spotted. The Green Woodpecker has a back of a dull shade of green, paler underneath, a red crown on the head and the bright yellowish rump that you’ll probably see as it flies off. The male has a red ‘moustache’, the female a black one. It is fairly large at around 32cm (12in), with a beak length of 4.5cm and a wingspan of 41cm. They are widespread over England and Wales. During the past 40 years they have spread rapidly northwards to be found in central and eastern Scotland. They are also found in central and southern Europe. In your own locality, these woodpeckers can be seen in other areas than parkland and woodland with grass areas, as they have been seen in orchards and large gardens. They don’t only eat ants, but wood-boring insects, beetles, moths and flies, extracting them from the barks of trees or from the ground. Green Woodpeckers have been known to raid bee-hives for bees and grubs. They will also eat fruit and seeds – and it is this food that will bring them to your garden bird feeding areas. But it is the ants they adore and they will fly long distances from their nest sites to find a good source of supplies. They will eat about 2,000 ants a day. When they find an ants’ nest they will tug at the grass with their beaks and dig out a hole about 8cm deep. As the ants try to rush away they are licked up with the woodpecker’s long sticky tongue which can also get ants, eggs, larvae and pupae out of the nest deeper down. A woodpecker may feed at a large ants’ nest for more than an hour, and will return again and again for weeks. Gardeners who love wildlife more than their lawns will put up with ants’ nests to see these lovely birds at work, as with their good camouflage and shy nature, their ringing ‘yaffle’ is more likely to be heard than a sight of them. The courtship display is a spiralling flight round tree branches by the male, and the males can fight by spreading their wings, swaying their heads from side to side, raising the crests on their head and fanning out their tails. There used to be more than the present estimated number of 30,000 pairs of Green Woodpeckers in the UK, but loss of habitat has brought down the numbers. Destruction of woodland and changes in agriculture are the main reasons. Unploughed pasture, left for many years, allowed ant colonies to build up. But intensive farming practices mean that ploughing, reseeding and fertilising is done regularly, and so ants’ nests cannot survive. Despite all this, the Green Woodpecker has managed to survive in good numbers and remains fairly widespread. So look out – and listen – for this lovely bird. Ants in your garden
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Have you heard the yaffle lately? It’s an unforgettable sound, probably one of the easiest bird sounds to identify in the countryside.