Anyone have good garden bird knowledge?

[Pepperwand]

Apologies for the rubbish quality photo and very boring question....my dad has been talking about a woodpecker that comes to visit his bird table....can anyone tell me what type of woodpecker it is? I don't know whether it's greater or lesser spotted.

[GreenGordon]

Greater spotted. Their lovely! Congratulations

[Judashascomeintosomemoney]

Lesser! Lovely. We get both Greater and Green woodpeckers here.

[GreenGordon]

they’re

[MayFayre]

Great spotted juvenile male

[GerundTheBehemoth]

It's a great spotted woodpecker in juvenile plumage (adult female has no red on her head, adult male just has a red spot on the nape). Lesser is tiny and doesn't have the big white shoulder patches.

[Purplewithred]

I thin Great Spotted? Although the way it's sitting is quite squat which is more like Lesser it's got a plain black back? I'm not an expert - our great spotted has just come back today after a summer away which is lovely!

[Judashascomeintosomemoney]

Oh sorry as PP said, greater but juvenile 🤦‍♀️

[MayFayre]

I’m very jealous. I find them absolute fascinating to watch.

[Pepperwand]

Oh you lot are lovely. The reason I ask is because I was thinking of getting him a print/sketch for Christmas but then I got lost down a rabbit hole of woodpecker identification and I'm rubbish at this sort of thing .

[tenlittlecygnets]

Greater speed. They're relatively common. Lesser spotted are rare - and much smaller! See the RSPB site for ID.

[tenlittlecygnets]

Speed = spotted! 🙄

[MayFayre]

What a lovely idea.

Do you know what food he puts on his bird table? I’d love to attract woodpeckers to my garden. I think we’ve only ever had one.

[SallySolardel]

@MayFayre

What a lovely idea.

Do you know what food he puts on his bird table? I’d love to attract woodpeckers to my garden. I think we’ve only ever had one.

I have a woodpecker, and he's attracted to my fat balls and peanuts (not in shell)

[EBearhug]

Yes, they're fond of peanuts.

[Purplewithred]

Mine likes the flutterbutter peanut feeders (and so do all the other birds, including the bloody magpies, who learn how to get it however hard I make it for them)

[Purplewithred]

www.bigwildthought.co.uk have lovely t shirts/hoodies/pencil cases etc with Woodpeckers embroidered on them.

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

We often get great spotted woodpeckers. At the moment they’re usually after the fat balls in a feeder.
They go for anything fatty. When it’s very cold I often make a ‘bird pudding’ for the bird table - a block of lard melted and all sorts stirred in - porridge oats, bird seed, any bits of crusts or crumbs, raisins, scraps of meat or bacon fat, etc. Once it’s cold I put a dollop or two on to the bird table. I usually put some on the ground somewhere for the ground feeders like blackbirds and robins, too.

I swear the GSWs can smell it since they will appear so quickly.

[Pepperwand]

@Purplewithred thank you that's really helpful.

I think it's fat balls he usually uses for feeding the birds, although he gets the odd squirrel and rat too

[ErrolTheDragon]

[quote Pepperwand]@Purplewithred thank you that's really helpful.

I think it's fat balls he usually uses for feeding the birds, although he gets the odd squirrel and rat too [/quote]
If he gets rats eating the bird food, maybe he'd like a pole bird feeder?