Great spotted woodpecker: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the great spotted woodpecker lives – recorded in 52 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Dendrocopos major
Group	Woodpeckers, kingfishers, hornbills & toucans
Status	Least concern (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	52 countries
Continents	Africa, Asia, Europe
Mass	5.7 g (birth weight); 89 g (adult weight)
Diet (main food)	nut, berry, juvenile, egg, aphid, bark, bud, carrion, Coccoidea, beetle, acorn, seed, Formicidae, Siricidae
Class	Bird
Order	Piciformes
Family	Picidae

Where does the great spotted woodpecker live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the great spotted woodpecker in 52 countries and territories across Africa, Asia and Europe. Wikidata gives its range as: Nanling Mountains, Africa.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

How big is a great spotted woodpecker?

Wikidata records the following for the great spotted woodpecker: mass 5.7 g (birth weight); 89 g (adult weight).

What does a great spotted woodpecker eat?

Wikidata lists the main food source of the great spotted woodpecker as: nut, berry, juvenile, egg, aphid, bark, bud, carrion, Coccoidea, beetle, acorn, seed, Formicidae, Siricidae.

Is the great spotted woodpecker endangered?

The great spotted woodpecker’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Least concern” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the great spotted woodpecker?

The great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) is a bird in the order Piciformes and the family Picidae, genus Dendrocopos. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the great spotted woodpecker

The great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) is a medium-sized woodpecker with pied black and white plumage and a red patch on the lower belly. Males and young birds also have red markings on the neck or head. This species is found across the Palearctic including parts of North Africa. Across most of its range it is resident, but in the north some will migrate if the conifer cone crop fails. Some individuals have a tendency to wander, leading to the recolonisation of Ireland in the first decade of the 21st century and to vagrancy to North America. Great spotted woodpeckers chisel into trees to find food or excavate nest holes, and also drum for contact and territorial advertisement; like other woodpeckers, they have anatomical adaptations to manage the physical stresses from the hammering action.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Great spotted woodpecker (revision 1357282933), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q26209 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).