Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos minor

The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Dryobates minor, is Britain’s smallest and most elusive woodpecker, belonging to the family Picidae. No larger than a Great Tit, adults are barred black and white above, with males distinguished by a red crown. It favours mature deciduous woodland, particularly stands of alder, willow, and oak with an abundance of dead and decaying wood, foraging high in the canopy and on slender outer branches where larger woodpeckers cannot reach. Unobtrusive at the best of times, it is most reliably located in early spring by its high, repetitive ‘pee-pee-pee’ call or its weak, high-pitched drumming. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker has undergone a severe and prolonged decline across Britain and is a Red List species, having disappeared from many counties where it was formerly regular. Image: © Natalia Sidorova, iNaturalist.

Find out more: RSPB, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, iNaturalist