Grey-headed Woodpecker

Grey-headed Woodpecker (Picus canus) is a medium-sized green woodpecker with a grey head, dark moustache and a small red forehead patch in the male. 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 favours mature deciduous and mixed forest across Eurasia, feeding heavily on ants both on trees and on the ground and excavating a nest cavity in softened trunks. 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).