The Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) is Sweden's most common woodpecker, 23–26 cm long with a wingspan of 38–44 cm and a weight of 70–98 g. It is black above with white shoulder patches and white wing bars, and shows a red patch under the tail; the male has a red patch on the nape, which the female lacks, while juveniles carry a red crown instead.
Its call is a sharp "kick!", and from March to May it drums in bursts of roughly 10–16 strikes per second that accelerate and then fade at the end. Found throughout Sweden with a population estimated at 400,000–600,000 pairs, it has increased in part by exploiting new food sources such as suet balls at garden feeders, and remains a resident bird year-round, though some winters bring large influxes of birds from the east. It lives in coniferous and mixed forest, deciduous woodland, parks and gardens. Each year it excavates a fresh nest hole in a living or dying tree, laying 4–7 eggs with an incubation period of 11–13 days, and chicks remain in the nest for 20–24 days before fledging. It feeds on insect larvae taken from under bark, and on seeds extracted from cones it wedges into self-made "anvils"; it also readily visits garden feeders for suet and fat, and will occasionally take chicks from the nests of other bird species.
Read about this species in Swedish →