Japanese Green Woodpecker

Japanese Green Woodpecker (Picus awokera) is a medium-sized Japanese endemic woodpecker with green upperparts, a grey-green head, dark moustache and red crown markings. 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 inhabits woodland from lowlands into mountains, foraging on trunks and on the ground for ants and other insects and excavating its own nest cavity in a tree. 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).