A woodpecker with black-and-white plumage and red underparts that clings to tree trunks.
Large white patches mark the black back. Adult males have a red nape, while young birds have a red crown.
In winter, Great Spotted Woodpeckers wedge pine cones into crevices in trees and pry out the seeds. In a Polish forest, researchers compared cones eaten at 24 such feeding sites with uneaten cones collected nearby, measuring 14,354 cones in all.
The woodpeckers’ choices depended on both cone length and scale thickness: they favored shorter cones when the scales were thin, but medium-length cones when the scales were thicker. Cones with the thickest scales were eaten less often, and the longest cones were also avoided. By feeding selectively, the birds exert different pressures on the traits of Scots pine cones. Researchers measured cone length and grouped scale tips into three shape categories. Comparing eaten cones with nearby uneaten cones showed how prey choice varied with both traits.
IUCN Red List · Least Concern (LC) · Global species-level assessment
The 2025 global IUCN Red List assessment lists the Great Spotted Woodpecker as Least Concern (LC). It estimates 49–78 million mature individuals and describes the population trend as decreasing. The assessment notes declines in eastern Europe and loss of tree cover within the range when characterizing the global trend as a slow decrease.