Woodpeckers

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Three-toed and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers

Great spotted woodpecker nestlings can be heard far and wide in early June. Quite monotonous but after one minute they finally get food from their parents.

Begging calls of great spotted woodpecker

Lots of young woodpeckers around this time of year. In my garden I heard a quite rare call, two young lesser spotted woodpeckers were begging for food and kept one parent very busy. At same time I saw two young great spotted woodpeckers and one young green woodpecker. Backyard garden at its best! 20 June 2022 Håga, Uppsala.

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (young)

Green Woodpecker

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Wryneck duet

The largest woodpecker of Europe at close range. First processing some dead wood, then flying off making both the pri-pri-pri and kliu calls. Siggefora, Uppland. August 24, 2022.

Black woodpecker

A nice frosty morning in my local forest Hågadalen-Nåsten, just outside the city of Uppsala. Grey-headed woodpecker, a rather scarce visitor from the north of Sweden, was very active calling at dawn. Also a nutcracker and a pygmy owl showed well making this a very fine morning. Uppsala. October 30, 2022.

Grey-headed Woodpecker

Black Woodpecker is the largest European Woodpecker and at least one pair breeds in my local wood. It has already started to excavate next year's nest in mid-November. It is going to be so nice to follow their nesting behaviours in 2023. In the same old clearcut, also green woodpecker is breeding and grey-headed woodpecker attempts to breed. Nåsten, Uppsala. November 13, 2022.

Black Woodpecker

I put out a drop-rig (Zoom F3 and Clippy EM272) over the night on the base of a dead birch where a threetoed woodpecker was making its winter nest. It took about 2-3 weeks from the start to the completion of the nest. Uppsala, Sweden. December 28, 2022.

Three-toed Woodpecker making a winter nest

To hear the young nestlings begging for food like this must be stressful (at least from my anthropocentric perspective). Kvarnbo, Uppland. June 19, 2023.

Stressful to be a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker parent!

The national park Nedre Dalälven is one of the best places for woodpeckers in Sweden. Around 5:30 in the morning I enjoyed a wonderful drumming concert with six different species including the very rare White-backed Woodpecker (several contact calls around 3 min to 3 min 30 seconds). March 28, 2024.

AudioTechnica BP4025 + Zoom F3

Woodpecker Bonanza

The beautiful song of the Grey-headed Woodpecker perfectly matches the melancholic mood of many living in the Nordic countries. Gysinge, Uppland. March 28, 2024

Wildtronics parabolic dish + Mixpre 3 ii

The melancholic song of the Grey-headed Woodpecker

The Black Woodpecker has spring feelings and this droprig recording captured his drumming, announcing that this territory is his. Lots of other calls interspersed among the drumming.

Nåsten, Uppsala. February 11, 2025.
Zoom F3 + Clippy EM272 as tree ears

Europe's largest woodpecker drumming

Voluntary forces and a bit of luck with fresh arrivals from Finland and the Baltic States have made the White-backed Woodpecker come back to southern Sweden once again. Still a major rarity but there are almost 10 pairs now in Uppland compared to single birds 15-20 years ago. This female was drumming quite intensively and was after a while joined by a male who also drummed for a short while. After a while they mated :)
And the background noise is not traffic for once but the rapids of Gysinge, Dalälven.

February 28, 2025. Dalälven
Wildtronic parabolic stereo dish + Mixpre 3ii

Once on the brink of extinction - White-backed Woodpecker

At dusk this Black Woodpecker drummed for almost one hour without break but I shortened it to an half-hour. Green Woodpeckers and Great Spotted Woodpeckers can also be heard.

Högbyhatt, Nåsten. March 21, 2025.
Zoom F3 + Clippy EM272 spaced 1 m apart 

Black Woodpecker drumming incessantly

A Pygmy Owl sat on top of an almost dead spruce and sang while it was still sun. Much to the chagrin of siskins, yellowhammers, blackbirds and long-tailed tits. The Black Woodpecker in the background did not care though...

Nåsten, Uppsala. March 21, 2025.
Zoom F3 + Clippy EM272 as spaced AB 1 m apart 

Europe's smallest Owl and biggest woodpecker

The tiniest European woodpecker is not much bigger than a house sparrow but its drumming is quite persistent!

Styggkärret, Uppland. March 29, 2025.
Mixpre 3ii + Wildtronics stereo parabolic dish

The tiny Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Field sound recordist and archivist of vanishing sounds in natural Iandscapes. Highly commended in the Sound of the Year Awards 2024 - Best Natural Sound.

Woodpeckers

Bo Söderström