A woodpecker found only in Japan, with a green back. It taps tree trunks for insects and also eats ants on the ground.
Its back is greyish-green and its head has red areas. Males have more red on the head than females.
Japanese green woodpeckers in Nagasaki raise their chicks in holes excavated in tree trunks. Both the male and female dig the nest hole and deliver food. After feeding, parents sometimes carry the chicks’ droppings away from the nest. Raising chicks inside a tree involves both food delivery and cleaning.
A report published in 2016 describes nest construction and parental care by the subspecies Picus awokera horii in Sasebo. A female inspected a hole the male had begun, and the pair subsequently took turns excavating. At a nest in Enaga in May 1984, a parent arriving on a branch called; the bird inside departed, and the arriving bird entered. Such changes were recorded repeatedly. On 4 June, a female flew away with a chick’s droppings immediately after feeding, and a male was also observed removing droppings that day. Parents sometimes moved backwards down the trunk to the entrance before feeding. The movements of both parents supported the chicks growing beyond the small entrance.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In his 2016 report, the Sasebo observer described the loss of chinquapin woodland to residential and other construction, including large trees previously used by Japanese green woodpeckers for nesting. He suggested that a shortage of suitable nest trees could matter even where some woodland remained, and urged avoidance of forest destruction. These are local observations of habitat change and the observer’s conservation recommendation.