Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker

How to recognise it

• Black-and-white plumage with no red or pink at all
• White back with black bars, dark flanks and a white stripe above the eye
• Male has a yellow to orange-yellow crown, female blackish grey, juveniles yellow
• Strongly undulating flight

Call and song

The commonest call resembles a Great Spotted Woodpecker's but is more muted, roughly gyg or gygg, sometimes a harder kyk. It is heard less often than Great Spotted Woodpecker and its calls are softer. The drum rolls are very long, often 1.1 to 1.4 seconds for 20 strikes, and have an accelerating rhythm.

Where and when

In Sweden it breeds regularly south to a line from northern Dalsland through Närke and Västmanland to central Uppland. About 45 percent of the Swedish population is estimated to live in Lappland. It is reported most in September and October, and its share of all bird reports is highest in Jämtland. It is red-listed in Sweden as Near Threatened.

Food and behaviour

Its main food is larvae, pupae and immature adult insects of bark beetles, weevils, jewel beetles and longhorn beetles, among others. It rings spruces by pecking small holes in the trunk and sucking out the sap. The pair usually excavates a new nest hole each year in a dead or dying conifer. It is not particularly shy and often lets people come within five metres before flying off.