A Winter Diet of Ants
There are three woodpeckers native to the UK, Great Spotted, the rare Lesser Spotted and the largest of the three, the Green Woodpecker. Although they look similar, Green Woodpeckers are not closely related to the other two woodpeckers and most importantly they don’t peck wood! Where other woodpeckers drum on hollow wood to advertise their presence, Green Woodpeckers have a loud, laughing call or ‘yaffle’. Yaffle, Laughing Betsey and Yaffingale are all traditional names for this magnificent bird.
Green Woodpeckers can be seen in churchyards all year round and give a splash of colour in the winter months when there may not be much to be seen. They are bright green in colour with a yellow rump and red cap: look out for their swooping flight as they come to feed in churchyards.
The main food of Green Woodpeckers are ants, and they have an extraordinary tongue for pulling ants and ant larvae out of anthills. Their tongues are extremely long and sticky, for probing deep into the anthill and sucking up ants. Green Woodpeckers’ tongues measure about 10cm, a third the length of the whole bird! When not feeding this long thin tongue is coiled within the birds’ skull, resting behind their eyes and around their brains.
The yellow meadow ant which builds anthills in grassland is common in churchyards, so Green Woodpeckers have a year-round source of food. These anthills are a sign of ancient, traditionally managed meadow so, although hard to mow around, they are really special, please look after them. As well as feeding the woodpeckers they often have different plants growing on them, so look out for the flash of green and red followed by the laughing ‘yaffle’ and then, in the spring and summer see what plants you can find on your anthills too.
Andrea Gilpin
andrea@cfga.org.uk
www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk