The white backed woodpecker
Dendrocopos leucotos
The white-backed woodpecker’s favorite food consists of insects that live in dead or decaying trees. Today, such habitats have become rare, and as a result, the number of white-backed woodpeckers has declined sharply. Once found throughout most of Sweden, only a few remain today.
About
The white-backed woodpecker is the largest of the spotted black-and-white woodpeckers. It depends on deciduous forests rich in old, decaying trees that host a variety of insects. This species has a very specialized diet, feeding mainly on the larvae of wood-dwelling insects. Each year, the white-backed woodpecker excavates a new nesting cavity, often high up in a rotting aspen, alder, or birch.
It marks its territory by drumming on dead branches. Each woodpecker species has its own distinctive drumming pattern, which can be heard over long distances. In recent years, there have been only a few breeding pairs remaining in Sweden.
Facts
Scientific name: Dendrocopos leucotos
Conservation status: Critically Endangered (CE)
Size: 28 cm long, with a wingspan of about 40 cm
Weight: 90–110 g
Number of eggs: 3–5
Did you know that:
Areas where more than 25% of the tree volume consists of spruce are not suitable as nesting sites for the white-backed woodpecker.
One of the most effective ways to quickly create good foraging habitats for woodpeckers is through controlled forest burning, where many — preferably all — standing trees are left intact.
According to ArtDatabanken (the Swedish Species Information Centre, responsible for assessing the threat status of species), the dense populations of moose and deer in parts of central Sweden need to be reduced to allow more deciduous trees to grow — a development that would greatly benefit the white-backed woodpecker.
Conservation status
