Birdwatching - 2142 🐦

🦉 The lesser spotted woodpecker (Picoides minor , synonym of Dryobates minor)

• Dryobates (Greek) : druos - forest, woodland, batēs - walker, stroller
• minor (Latin) - smaller

This cute little woodpecker is literally a carbon copy of the larger species of woodpeckers. The same recognizable coloring of black, white and red (in males). Only it is the size of a sparrow. You may also notice brown spots on his face, these are not feathers, these are spots from rotten bark.

The small woodpecker does not peck the bark of trees as the big woodpeckers do, it pecks the bark on the branches of trees where it is thin. But in addition to this, it pecks rotten bark of trees, which it easily gives in to with its small beak, which is why it gets the characteristic red spots on its face.