Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) is a medium-sized pied woodpecker with black-and-white wings, a red patch beneath the tail and additional red on males or young birds. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It climbs trunks and branches in Palearctic woodland, chiselling for insects and also eating seeds and nuts, and excavates a tree cavity for nesting; northern birds sometimes wander when cone crops fail. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).