The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dryobates minor) is Sweden's smallest woodpecker, sparrow-sized and dependent on dead wood and old deciduous trees. At just 14–16 cm long, with a wingspan of 24–29 cm and a weight of 17–25 grams, it is barred black and white on the back rather than showing the large white shoulder patches of the Great Spotted Woodpecker, and its underside is off-white without any red beneath the tail. The male has a red crown, the female a white or off-white one. Its most common call is a whining, descending "ki-ki-ki-ki-ki" recalling a Golden Oriole, and its drumming is notably long and even — around one to one and a half seconds — but thinner and weaker than the shorter bursts of the larger woodpeckers.
The species occurs in southern and central Sweden, extending some way into Norrland, with a population of roughly 6,000–12,000 pairs that is thought to be declining; it is red-listed as Near Threatened in Sweden, chiefly because modern forestry reduces the supply of old, decaying deciduous trees and standing dead wood it relies on. It excavates its own nest hole in a rotten trunk or branch soft enough to work, where the female lays 5–6 eggs and both parents share incubation and feeding duties. It forages for insects and their larvae under loose bark, mainly on deciduous trees, working its way along thin branches high in the canopy in an almost tit-like manner, including through the winter, when it remains as a resident. It is easiest to detect in early spring, when males drum and call to mark territory before the leaves emerge.
Read about this species in Swedish →