Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - Ecology

Ecology

Its habits are very similar to those of the Great Spotted Woodpecker, and it has the same stumpy appearance, almost triangular, when bounding from tree to tree. Its note is a repeated "keek", loud for so small a bird, and its vibrating rattle can with experience be distinguished from that of the larger species. This substitute for a song may be heard at all times, but most frequently when courtship begins early in the year.

Its insect food is similar to that of the Great Spotted Woodpecker. When hunting for wood-boring larvae it chips away at the rotten wood, and the litter at the foot of a tree is often the first indication that insects are attacking upper branches. From autumn to spring it hunts mainly on wood-living insect larvae, frequently from thin dead branches in living trees. Through the breeding season, surface-living insects from the foliage and bark of trees make up an increased amount of the diet. Nestlings are mainly fed with surface-living insects,such as aphids and larval insects. At night it roosts in old holes.

A litter of chips is also a guide to a nesting hole, for the bird does not always carry these away when excavating. The hole is usually at a considerable height above the ground and may be so high as 30 or 40 feet. It is a smaller burrow than that of the Great Spotted Woodpecker, measuring from 1 to 2 inches in diameter.

The shaft varies, the nesting cavity being often a foot or more below the entrance. Five to eight highly polished white eggs are laid upon wood dust and chips in the latter half of May, and a single brood is the rule. Both birds help to incubate. Occasionally an old or natural hollow is used or enlarged.

Populations of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers are mostly resident, but can be nomadic to some degree. Annual fluctations in population numbers are common. The winter temperatures may exhibit a direct effect on winter survival of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers by heat loss, whereas weather conditions during spring have an indirect effect on breeding performance by affecting food production.