Last Sunday, André and I observed an interesting visitor in our garden: a green woodpecker (Grünspecht). Unlike “normal” woodpeckers, they mostly search for food on the ground, where they forage for ants, earthworms etc.. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get really close with my camera, so the quality of the images is not the best, but this is what we saw through the living-room window. (As usual, click for a bigger version.)
I think they look even more vibrant than the more common great spotted woodpeckers (Buntspechte) we have here, but I just found out that there are a lot of different kinds of woodpeckers, some of which have even more colourful plumage.
How beautiful! And how exciting it must have been. I’m quite fond of the regular woodpecker, great and spotted, that appears regularly in the tree outside my window. I wouldn’t mind a green one, though.
Great pictures, Andrea! From the robustness of his bill I would have guessed he was a wood hammerer rather than a ground forager. What a splendid visitor…
Hal, the green woodpecker also pecks wood, like the name suggests. The bill seems to be multi-functional. ;-)