Birdwatching - 2064 🐦

🦉 The white-backed woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos)

• Dendrocopos (Greek): dendron - tree, coptō - to hit, beat
• leucotos (Greek): leukos - white, nōton - back

This species of woodpecker is very similar to its closest relatives - the Great Spotted Woodpecker. However, there are minor differences in plumage. This species, as you might guess, has a large amount of white on top and bottom, thin black stripes on the sides, and also other sexual dimorphism. Males have a red cap on their heads along the entire length of their heads, while females do not have one at all.

It is less common and mostly gravitates towards hard-to-reach forests, where there may be swampy areas, a lot of windfall, bushes and dead trees.