Great spotted woodpecker
Dendrocopos major
A pied black, white and red woodpecker with large white shoulder patches. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.
Overview
What is Great spotted woodpecker
The great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) is a pied black, white and red woodpecker (family Picidae) confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia codes it YR-R: a breeder present throughout the year. Seasonality is classed as high-quality (code A). Occurrence quality is high (H), with photographs, sound recordings and ringing data. Adults are about 22–23 cm long at species level. It is not a threat to people. IUCN lists the species as Least Concern. The 2024 checklist assigns the same category nationally.
Last updated
Gallery
Great spotted woodpecker in photos
Photo: Charles J. Sharp
Drenthe ·
Photo: Charles J. Sharp
Drenthe ·
Photo: Charles J. Sharp
Drenthe ·
Photo: Charles J. Sharp
Drenthe ·
Photo: Charles J. Sharp
Dobruja ·
Photo: P-O Rehnberg
Ånnaboda ·
Identification
How to identify Great spotted woodpecker
A pied woodpecker with large white shoulder patches and a red vent. Adult males have a red nape patch; adult females do not. In Georgia it is a year-round resident on the 2024 checklist. The usual confusion is Syrian woodpecker.
- 01
Length about 22–23 cm and wingspan 34–39 cm at species level (BirdID). BTO live birds in the United Kingdom average 78.7 g for adults. The back is black with large white shoulder patches; the wings and tail sides are barred black and white. The underparts are white with a red vent. The bill is straight and chisel-like. A black cheek stripe links the bill base, throat and nape.
- 02
Sex is marked on the head: adult males have a red nape patch; adult females have an all-black hindcrown. Juveniles have a red crown, more barred shoulder patches and a pinker vent. RSPB calls it blackbird-sized but more slender. A separate measured Georgian series is not on this page.
- 03
Syrian woodpecker (Dendrocopos syriacus) is also a year-round resident in Georgia on the 2024 checklist and is the closest field confusion. Its black cheek stripe does not join the nape, so the cheek stays white. Middle spotted woodpecker (Dendrocoptes medius) has a red crown as an adult and lacks the large white shoulder patches. White-backed woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos) has a white lower back, not large shoulder patches. Lesser spotted woodpecker (Dryobates minor) is much smaller and has no red vent. This atlas does not yet have separate pages for those species.
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European green woodpecker is a year-round resident in Georgia on the 2024 checklist: larger, olive-green, with a red crown. This atlas has a page for that species. Grey-headed woodpecker (Picus canus) is also a resident: grey-headed and green-backed. Black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) is large and black. Eurasian wryneck is small, cryptically brown, and a breeding migrant, not a pied resident; this atlas has a page for that species.
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It is not a threat to people. Leave it alone. In Georgian woodland a pied woodpecker with large white shoulders is most often this species.
Biology
Habitat, diet, behavior, and conservation
Habitat and range
This page does not colour a municipality-by-municipality map. The 2024 checklist confirms country-level resident status but does not publish a regional gazetteer. Do not assume it occurs evenly across Georgia, including treeless high plateaus. Named survey evidence: Javakhishvili, Melikishvili and Metreveli (2022) recorded it at 71.25% of forest sampling points in Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park (80 points) and at 34.62% of points in Pshav-Khevsureti Protected Areas (26 points). It was the most prevalent woodpecker in both areas. In that study it was not tied to any particular forest class, but it avoided areas with little vegetation. Forests in Pshav-Khevsureti are mostly high-mountain and subalpine and less suitable for woodpeckers; even there this species was still the most recorded woodpecker. Species-level habitat is deciduous, coniferous or mixed woodland, also parks and gardens with trees. A separate elevation belt for Georgia is not published here.
Diet
There is no separate Georgian diet study on this page. Across the range it takes bark insects and their larvae, conifer-cone seeds, nuts and other seeds in winter. RSPB and BTO also note eggs and chicks of other hole-nesting birds; that is not a measured Georgian menu. In the field a pied woodpecker hitching on a trunk, chiselling bark or smashing cones on an “anvil” is typical.
Behavior
It is active by day and often heard before it is seen. The contact call is a short, sharp “kik” or “tchick”. Drumming is a short, rapid burst, often less than a second; in spring it advertises territory and pairing. Flight is undulating. It is wary; do not handle it. It nests in a hole chiselled in a tree, usually a new one. BTO nest records in the United Kingdom give clutches of about four to six eggs, incubation about 14–16 days, and young in the hole about 20–23 days; those figures are not a Georgian nest sample on this page. The 2024 checklist treats the species as a breeder in Georgia. Call counts in Borjomi-Kharagauli and Pshav-Khevsureti in 2022 ran from 24 April to 17 May and from 25 June to 7 July. It is resident; the checklist does not code it as a passage migrant or winter visitor only.
Conservation
BirdLife International assesses Dendrocopos major as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. The 2024 Georgian checklist assigns LC globally and nationally. It is not on Georgia’s 2014 Red List (Government Decree No. 190). A Georgian population trend is not quantified on this page. The 2022 protected-area survey is a local snapshot, not a national monitoring series. Do not catch wild birds. Loss of old and dead trees is a biologically relevant pressure at species level; a local threat ranking for Georgia is not published here.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the most important questions about Great spotted woodpecker.
Yes. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia lists it as a confirmed year-round resident (YR-R): a breeder present throughout the year, with photographs, sound recordings and ringing data.
In woodland, parks and gardens with trees. Named surveys recorded it in Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park (71.25% of 80 forest points) and Pshav-Khevsureti Protected Areas (34.62% of 26 points). It was the most prevalent woodpecker in both. This page does not map every region.
A pied woodpecker with large white shoulder patches and a red vent. Males have a red nape patch; females do not. Juveniles have a red crown. In Syrian woodpecker the black cheek stripe does not join the nape.
About 22–23 cm long at species level, wingspan 34–39 cm. BTO gives a mean adult mass of 78.7 g in the United Kingdom. A separate measured Georgian series is not on this page.
Mainly tree insects and larvae, and seeds and cones in winter. Diet has not been studied separately for Georgia on this page.
All year, according to the 2024 checklist. It is not treated there as a passage migrant or winter visitor only.
Yes. YR-R on the 2024 checklist means a resident breeder. The 2022 protected-area survey recorded calling birds from late April to early July.
It is harmless. Globally it is Least Concern, and the 2024 checklist codes it LC nationally. It is not on Georgia’s 2014 Red List. Do not catch wild birds.
- Budagashvili & Javakhishvili 2024 — The birds of Georgia (Sandgrouse 46)
- Javakhishvili, Melikishvili & Metreveli 2022 — Woodpecker monitoring in Borjomi-Kharagauli and Pshav-Khevsureti
- Ilia State University — SPA checklist of birds of Georgia
- BirdLife DataZone — Great Spotted Woodpecker
- IUCN Red List — Dendrocopos major
- IOC World Bird List
- Avibase — Georgia bird checklist
- Avibase — Dendrocopos major tenuirostris
- NPLG Wiki Dictionaries — დიდი ჭრელი კოდალა
- ქართული ენციკლოპედია — კოდალასებრნი
- საქართველოს მთავრობის დადგენილება №190 (2014) — წითელი ნუსხა
- RSPB — Great spotted woodpecker
- BTO BirdFacts — Great Spotted Woodpecker
- BirdID — Dendrocopos major
- eBird — Great Spotted Woodpecker
- Winkler & Christie — Birds of the World (Dendrocopos major)
- Wikimedia Commons — male Drenthe (Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — female Drenthe (Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — male Drenthe 2 (Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — female Drenthe 3 (Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — juvenile Dobruja (Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Ånnaboda (P-O Rehnberg, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- xeno-canto XC542957 — Dendrocopos major (Benoît Van Hecke, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
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