Callum Macgregor

The species occurs in great variety of woodland and forest, from deciduous forests to mixed and coniferous stands. It favours also parks, gardens, copses, tree lines. Species’ range extends across the temperate and boreal regions of the Palearctic, from W Europe and Scandinavia to Kamchatka, Japan & E China, as well as NW Africa, Middle East & SE Asia (Winkler et al. 2020). It is widespread in Europe, absent in the treeless zones (tundra in the far N, steppes in SW Russia) (Keller et al. 2020).

Mostly resident species, N populations prone to eruptive migration.

Its population trend in Europe is increasing. Evaluated as “Least Concern” (BirdLife International 2021).

Season of assessment

B

Population trendDecreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		17200000-27300000,21500000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Great Spotted Woodpecker

Most populations largely sedentary or locally dispersive, irregular irruptions take place primarily in N & E Europe.

Birds breeding in W & C Europe generally resident, with some short- to medium-distance movements of juveniles and adults SW & SE from the ringing sites; some birds travel S as far as S Italy. N European birds take mainly SW and to a lesser extent S & SE routes, being subsequently encountered in the Baltic Sea region, W, S and E Europe. Long-distance movements adults marked in Finland and subsequently found in W Siberia possibly represent post-invasion withdrawals.

There is little connectivity of the British population with continental Europe – a possibly returning immigrant to Belgium, as well as rare instances of receiving some birds from Scandinavia during irruption years (Coulson, Odin, 2007).

Recoveries by Condition for Great Spotted Woodpecker

Most encounters are obtained since the early 2000s. They are generally distributed evenly throughout the year. The bulk of encounters are recorded in NW, C, N & W Europe – ca. 94% combined (39, 23, 18 and 14% respectively).

The encounters based on dead birds largely decreased over the years (from 72% pre-1960 to just 2% after 1991), while those based on alive birds – markedly increased (from ca. 25% to 97% respectively); the latter is mostly due to ringing encounters. Shooting was significant factor in the past, with 12% of all cases before 1960. A variety of recovery condition categories related to human activities (though, currently constituting a small share) has been achieved as a result of the numerous urban populations close-existing to humans.

Annual Movements for Great Spotted Woodpecker

In N populations, post-breeding dispersal is evident Aug-Oct and return movements in spring – Mar-Apr (mid-May) (Noskov et al. 2016). Finnish data suggest even wider margins for the autumn dispersal – from late Jul to early Nov (Saurola et al. 2013).

Dominant movement pattern in the birds breeding in N Europe follows NE – SW direction, leading to subsequent encounters as far as SC & SW Europe Oct-Nov, but mostly in the Baltic & North Sea regions; some birds take SE routes, reaching E Europe as early as Sep.

Adult birds ringed in Mar in Finland and subsequently encountered in May further E in Russia suggest post-invasion return.

Crossing of the Alps sometimes possibly takes place – a dispersing juvenile marked in Switzerland has been encountered in S Italy.

Altitudinal migration has been locally recorded as well (Keller et al. 2020).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Great Spotted Woodpecker

Species’ irregular irruptions are often explained by increased population density or lack of food (cone crops) (Lindén et al. 2011); however, the latter factor is sometimes questioned (Sokolov et al. 2013). The sample size of distant recoveries (>=50 km) show mostly short- to medium-distance movements, rarely long-distance movements – data mainly from N & E Europe. More than half of them (58%) are less than 250km away from the ringing site, and 76% – within 500km.

Post-breeding dispersal movements in N European populations start in late summer and last until mid- to late autumn. The birds are encountered mostly SW (as far as SW France and Italy), but also SE from the ringing sites (Belarus, European Russia). Spring movements take place early- to mid/late spring.

Ringing data from France and SE Europe extremely limited.

Boris Nikolov

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
2020 . European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. European Bird Census Council & Lynx Edicions, BarcelonaEditor(s): Keller, V., S. Herrando, P. Voříšek, et al.
BirdLife International 2021 . Species factsheet: Dendrocopos major. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 01/09/2021.
Coulson, J., Odin, N. 2007 . Continental Great Spotted Woodpeckers in mainland Britain ‐ fact or fiction?. Ringing & Migration 23: 217–222
Lindén A, Lehikoinen A, Hokkanen T, Väisänen RA 2011 . Modelling irruptions and population dynamics of the great spotted woodpecker – joint effects of density and cone crops. Oikos 120: 1065–1075
Noskov, G. A., Rymkevich, T. A., Gaginskaya, A. R. 2016 . Migration of Birds on Northwest Russia. Non-Passerines. ANO LA “Professional”, Saint Petersburg
Saurola, P. Valkama, J., Velmala, W. 2013 . The Finnish Bird Ringing Atlas Vol. I. Finnish Museum of Natural History and Ministry of Environment, Helsinki
Sokolov L.V., Shapoval A.P. & Yakovleva M.V. 2013 . Long-term monitoring of Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos major irruptions in the Baltic region and Karelia. Avian Ecol. Behav. 24: 3–33
Winkler, H., D. A. Christie, and G. M. Kirwan 2020 . Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major), version 1.0. In Birds of the World Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.grswoo.01) Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA

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