Skip to content
Bioestrecho
Menu

Your portal

My list
Sign in

Species › Birds

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Dendrocopos major

Order
Piciformes
Family
Picidae
Presence in the Strait
Resident
Abundance
abundant
Protection in Spain
Special protection (List)
In Spanish
Pico picapinos

Photograph: Paolo Zucca, CC BY, vía iNaturalist

Length
22–23 cm
Wingspan
34–39 cm
Weight
85 g
02040LENGTH22–23 cmWINGSPAN34–39 cmcentimetres

Presence in the Strait

Abundant resident in woodlands.

Identification

Black and white; black wings and tail, heavily barred white. Two white ovals on shoulders. Males have a red nape. In juvenile birds the crown is red, while females have no red on their heads. All display a red vent. They are easy to detect by their metallic call and the tapping sounds on tree trunks.

Movements

Sedentary with erratic movements after breeding, with peaks in March, April and October.

Bioestrecho editorial text. Last revised: 8 September 2026.

Gallery

Photographs from iNaturalist observations with the licence checked file by file. Those marked “Strait” were taken within the area; place and date are those of each observation.