🦉 The great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)
📚 Dendrocopos Greek: dendron tree, coptō to hit, beat
📚 major (lat.) big
These photos were taken by me in a distant wild coniferous forest, in late autumn. In general, at this time there are very, very few birds there. From the whole walk, I only saw two woodpeckers.
The top photo is a female. You see, or rather you don’t see, there is no red little cap on the head. And the males have it, on the back of the head. In young birds, this cap is the entire length of the head.
The presence of woodpeckers in a coniferous forest is easily explained. In cold weather, closer to winter, insects hide and are difficult to reach and find. Therefore, woodpeckers sometimes prefer to eat the seeds of coniferous plants.