The Grey-headed Woodpecker (Picus canus) is a medium-sized Eurasian woodpecker closely related to — and easily confused with — the Green Woodpecker, but smaller and considerably more discreet: it is seldom heard and even more rarely seen. About the size of a Blackbird but more robustly built, it measures 27–30 cm long with a wingspan of 38–40 cm. The back is a clear green and the belly grey-yellow, while the head is grey with a black moustache stripe that is narrower and less distinct than the Green Woodpecker's; the male carries a small red forehead patch that the female lacks. In flight it shows the green back and the bounding, undulating flight typical of woodpeckers.
Its song is one of the most melancholic sounds in Nordic forest — a falling series of whistled notes, "kyy-kyy-kyy-kyy-kyy", that gradually sinks in pitch and tempo and carries far through quiet woodland, heard mainly February to April; its drumming is weaker and shorter than the Green Woodpecker's. Like its relative, the Grey-headed Woodpecker specialises in ants, foraging at anthills on the ground as well as pecking into rotting trunks, and it excavates its nest hole in a living or half-dead deciduous tree, where 5–8 eggs are incubated for about 17–18 days by both parents. It favours older deciduous and mixed forest with coarse, often dead trees, particularly alder woods along streams, avoiding dense spruce plantations. Found throughout Sweden from Skåne to central Norrland but nowhere common, the population is estimated at only around 1,000 pairs, and this resident species rarely strays far from its territory.
Read about this species in Swedish →