Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Fledgling

[BloomingMarvellous]

Seen lot's of Woodpeckers in my lifetime, but never a Baby Woodpecker until today. I'm well made up.

[solus]

Er.... isn't that a Greater Spotted Woodpecker??

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by solus

Er.... isn't that a Greater Spotted Woodpecker??

Definitely a juvenile Great-spotted Woodpecker.

[sunnydale]

Still nice for BM to have seen it though!

Tracey

[BloomingMarvellous]

I was on the understanding that the Lesser had a red head, the Great having a red bottom.

I'll just go and have a look round, mmmmm.

[solus]

Great juveniles also have a red head! Adult male GSW has a red nape, the female doesn't but both have red vent areas.

LSW is much smaller - not much bigger than a House Sparrow and has white barring horizontally across the back whereas the GSW has the big white patches running vertically down the "shoulders".

[BloomingMarvellous]

I was unaware that the Great Spotted juvenile also had a red head. However, after looking at photo's of both juveniles, I still believe that this is a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

The face markings are very different, the Great Spotted Woodpeckers markings, join to make an unbroken pattern, the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers markings, do not join up.

[htcdude]

Originally Posted by BloomingMarvellous

The face markings are very different,

Because it's a juvenile.

the Great Spotted Woodpeckers markings, join to make an unbroken pattern, the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers markings, do not join up.

I'm not sure this is always the case. You can't really see the wings on this bird, but for me it's a Great Spotted.



Nige

[Deb London]

It's not a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

[Dae]

looks like a juvie great-spotted to me too. Bill is far too prominant for me, lsw's have such a petite looking bill imo, facial pattern too strong for me and this looks like a much larger bird than the lesser from what I understand. still a great site, I've only ever seen 1 juvie gsw when it visited the feeders at our last property.