Green woodpecker
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Green Woodpecker ( Picus viridis ) |
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| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The green woodpecker ( Picus viridis ), sometimes grass Woodpecker or ground woodpecker called, is a species from the family of woodpeckers (Picidae). The green woodpecker and its sister species , the gray woodpecker ( Picus canus ), are the only representatives of the genus Picus in Central Europe.
description
The green woodpecker grows up to 32 centimeters long and has a wingspan of up to 52 centimeters. The top is dark green, the bottom is pale light to gray-green in color. The head is marked on the sides by a black face mask that extends from the beak to behind the eyes, which is why it is popularly known as the Flying Zorro . The skull and neck are red, the rump green-yellow. The area around the ears, chin and throat, on the other hand, are whitish. The wings or wings of the animals are spotted brown-black, yellowish or brownish-white. The control feathers are banded blackish on a green-gray background. The differences between the sexes are small, in the male the cheek patch is red with a black border, in the female this cheek patch is solid black. The green woodpecker's eyes are bluish white, beak and feet are lead gray. Males and females are the same size and weight. Captives in the Camargue weighed an average of 177 g (males) or 174 g (females), the range ranged from 138 g to 201 g.
The juvenile plumage is very different from the plumage of the adult, it is overall much more matt. The sides of the head, neck and underside are strongly mottled to banded on an almost white background. The red parts of the head color are inconspicuous and mostly interspersed with gray spots. The wings and the upper side of the plumage also have clear white spots.
In Central Europe, the green woodpecker can only be confused with the somewhat smaller but otherwise very similar gray woodpecker . In contrast to the green woodpecker, however, the gray woodpecker has a gray head, a dark red eye and only a narrow black chin stripe. The gray woodpecker also lacks the red crown of the green woodpecker, only the male's front head is red, the female's red head is missing. Often the observation site already provides information on the identification of the species, the gray woodpecker is absent in north-west Central Europe and is much more tied to mountains and forests than the green woodpecker (see distribution).
Mauser
The juvenile moult takes place continuously and begins in the breeding cave. In the course of about four months it is completed and accordingly the young birds already have the plumage of the adult birds in late autumn .
Loud utterances and drum noises
Green woodpeckers drum much less often than most other native woodpeckers. They then only produce quiet and irregular vortices. What is striking, on the other hand, is the distinctive Reviergesang, which is uttered by both sexes, but more intensely by the male. This sounds like a loud laugh ( "klü-klü-klü-klü-klü-klü-klü" ). The somewhat nasal sounding series of calls, consisting of up to 20 syllables, remains on the same pitch and becomes faster and a little quieter towards the end. Often there is a two-syllable, clear ending ( "klü-ück" ). In warm winter weather, these calls can be heard in Central Europe as early as December and January, but usually only towards the end of February. The similar call series of the gray woodpecker sounds purer and is usually slightly higher in pitch. The stanza drops in pitch, becomes slower and noticeably quieter towards the end, and falls silent without an accent. Green woodpeckers often utter a sharp "Kjäck" when landing , sometimes also "Kjück" , which is lined up with a polysyllabic call ( "Kjück-Kjück-Kjück-Kjück" ) when they are alarmed or in aggressive situations .
Voice examples
Green woodpecker call series
distribution and habitat
The green woodpecker lives in large parts of Europe and the Middle East , so it is found in the western Palearctic . It occurs from southern Scandinavia and Great Britain over most of the European mainland to the Mediterranean area and in the southeast to the Caucasus , Turkmenistan and northern Iran . The boreal coniferous forest zone in the north and the steppes and semi-deserts in the south of the distribution area are only populated at the edge.
He prefers semi-open landscapes with extensive old wood, especially forest edges, field trees, orchards , parks, groves and large gardens with trees. Within extensive forest areas, it occurs only in heavily thinned areas, on forest meadows and larger clearings. The species shows a strong preference for deciduous forests, in extensive coniferous forests it can be very rare or absent in large areas.
Due to its strong specialization in ground-living ants, the green woodpecker is susceptible to severe winters with high levels of snow. The main focus of the distribution is therefore the lowlands and the lower layers of the low mountain range up to a height of about 500 m above sea level. In the snowy Bavarian Forest, which is dominated by coniferous forests, it is very rare and is completely absent above 900 m. The altitude distribution also seems to be influenced by the occurrence of the gray woodpecker, which is particularly widespread in the colline level, with simultaneous occurrence of both species, the green woodpecker can already be extensively absent at altitudes from 150 m above sea level (e.g. in North Rhine-Westphalia ), these altitudes are then colonized by the gray woodpecker.
In the Alpine region, this limitation of distribution in terms of sea level does not exist. In the Bavarian Prealps and Alps, the green woodpecker inhabits all altitudes from 600 to 1400 m above sea level and has been detected up to 1700 m above sea level, the gray woodpecker inhabited the same altitudes at a slightly lower density. In Switzerland, the main distribution is at altitudes up to 1000 m above sea level, but the species occurs there regularly up to heights of 2000 m above sea level. The gray woodpecker is restricted to altitudes below about 700 m above sea level, so it only inhabits the colline level there. The highest records are found in the canton of Valais in Switzerland at an altitude of 2150 m, in the Transcaucasus the green woodpecker was even found at an altitude of 2745 m.
Way of life
activity
The green woodpecker is diurnal, when it is dark it only moves by climbing. He has a regular activity phase and can fly the same routes every day for weeks and look for food in the same places. The activity phase itself lasts between eight hours in December and 15 hours in July, depending on the daylight.
The green woodpecker frequent and skillful moves than the other woodpeckers on the ground, making it known as "ground woodpecker" (not to be confused with Geocolaptes olivaceus , the South African ground woodpecker ). He hops distances of up to three meters in individual jumps of a maximum of 25 centimeters without flying. In contrast to the non-ferrous and blood woodpecker , the green woodpecker is climbing not suddenly, but rather fluently, while although not as fast as the gray-headed woodpecker.
In the case of relatively close rows of trees, it does not fly from one tree to the next, but overcomes the distances in a very characteristic soaring flight. He first climbs up one tree trunk and then glides from below the tree top to the foot of the next tree and likes to repeat this drama many times in a row.
It is a largely location-loyal bird that only undertakes short hikes. In winter it sometimes wanders far and wide and often appears in gardens to look for food. It is accordingly a standing and line bird . The young birds leave the territories of their parents and look for their own territories in their vicinity, even on these migrations they are usually only up to 30 kilometers away from the place of birth. The furthest hikes so far proven by ringing were 82 km in one case and 170 km in another.
nutrition
The green woodpecker looks for its food almost exclusively on the ground, it chops trees much less than the other woodpeckers. Of all Central European woodpeckers, the green woodpecker specializes most in ground-dwelling ants . He catches these in their corridors with his 10 centimeter long tongue, which ends in a horny and barbed end.
In the early hours of the morning, shortly after sunrise, green woodpeckers seek out meadows and pastures with loose topsoil and obstructions in order to drill holes several centimeters deep with their long beaks. The birds often prey on the red wood ant and other Formica species, in summer various Lasius species (garden ants ). In winter, green woodpeckers dig tunnels in the snow to get to anthills, which are usually visited regularly. In winter, in particular, he looks for rock faces, but he also regularly looks for roofs, house walls or power poles and looks for wintering arthropods , especially for flies, mosquitoes and spiders in crevices . In contrast, worms and other invertebrates are rarely part of the diet. Occasionally, green woodpeckers also eat berries, such as rowan berries and the seed coats of the yew tree , and other fruits such as cherries, apples or grapes.
Reproduction and development
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Green woodpeckers reach sexual maturity in their first year of life. The courtship begins with the first contact calls from the males in December and then increases significantly over January and February. The actual pair formation and the determination of the territorial boundaries takes place in Central Europe from mid-March to early April. The birds are likely to form seasonal marriages , but long-term relationships between couples are also not excluded. The highest vocal activity occurs in April and May.
As a rule, abandoned breeding and wintering caves of other woodpeckers or your own wintering caves serve as nesting holes. Like the gray woodpecker, the green woodpecker are not very picky about the tree species and can use caves accordingly in a wide variety of tree species. In deciduous forests, they are often found in beech , oak , sycamore maple and linden , in alluvial forests, on the other hand, in birch , poplar , willow or alder . The nesting holes can also be found in various fruit trees, plane trees , mountain ash , chestnut and spruce . If you do not find any caves that have already been abandoned, make your own, mostly in softer sources of putrefaction. If the wood is too hard, the cave construction is broken off. These caves that have been commenced then rot over the years and eventually become breeding caves after a few years. The depth of the interior of the breeding cave is usually cut to about 25 to 60 centimeters, the entrance hole has a height and width of 50 to 75 millimeters each.
A short time after mating, the female lays five to eight pure white eggs with an average size of 31 × 23 millimeters. The egg-laying begins between the beginning of April and the middle of May, the incubation period is 14 to 17 days. The young birds then develop within 23 to 27 days and fly out in June to July. Further clutches are only produced if the original clutches do not produce any offspring, in which case the female can produce up to two additional clutches, which are deposited in a new cave prepared by both partners. In the first three to seven weeks, both parent animals feed and lead their offspring, even after that, young woodpeckers up to 15 weeks old can still have casual contact with their parents.
Systematics
The green woodpecker is classified with about 15 other species of woodpecker in the genus Picus , which is widespread in the Palearctic . The gray woodpecker ( Picus canus ) is considered a sister species and is the only species in Europe besides the green woodpecker. The separation of species is dated to the last Ice Age , the Worm Ice Age , during which two populations of the parent species were separated and only met again after the end of about 10,000 years ago.
Depending on the source, three to eleven subspecies are recognized today, with the transitions between these being fluid (clinical). In addition to the nominate form, Glutz von Blotzheim & Bauer (1994) only recognize the subspecies Picus viridis sharpei on the Iberian Peninsula and Picus viridis innominatus in southwestern Iran, which clearly differ from the nominate form in a number of color characteristics. The Atlas green woodpecker ( Picus vaillanti ) was also long considered a subspecies of the green woodpecker, but is now considered a separate species.
Inventory development
The green woodpecker is one of the most common woodpeckers in Europe. Its total European population is estimated at 370,000 to 1.7 million breeding pairs (according to more recent figures 590,000 to 1.3 million), of which up to 165,000 pairs are said to live in Central Europe. Worldwide it is even assumed that there are 920,000 to 2.9 million animals. The German population was estimated at 23,000 to 35,000 breeding pairs at the end of the 1990s, making the green woodpecker the third most common woodpecker in Germany after the great spotted woodpecker and black woodpecker. There are around 7,000 to 14,000 breeding pairs in Austria.
Information on the development of the population is contradictory and is only rarely based on large-scale surveys. In Germany, eight federal states reported decreases of 20–50% in the 1990s, three increases of the same order of magnitude; for five federal states, the population was estimated to be roughly the same. A connection between population trend and geographical location was not discernible. In Austria the species is not considered endangered, but is completely protected in some federal states, such as Carinthia. In Great Britain , after 1940, a slight decrease was noted in the north of England , but at the same time the area was expanded to the north in Scotland . In the Netherlands there was a definite decline in the population between the mid-1970s and the beginning of the 1990s, with the population roughly halved overall. In Poland and France the population shows a positive trend.
The main reason for negative developments is the loss of suitable habitats in the form of open and structurally rich areas. The decline in meadow ants due to extensive conversion of grassland into arable land and the increased use of biocides in agriculture is probably the main cause. Eutrophication and the lack of mowing of abandoned meadows are also likely to play a role.
Short-term, in some cases considerable, population declines are due to harsh winters, which the green woodpecker can survive less well than its sister species, the gray woodpecker. Heavy losses due to the weather are usually only compensated for after ten years and in areas where both species live, the species ratio shifts significantly in favor of the gray woodpecker after harder winters.
Due to the current situation and the decline in populations over the last few decades, the green woodpecker is included in the warning list of the Red List of Endangered Species in Germany and the Netherlands . At the international level, the species is listed in Appendix II of the Bern Convention (= species to be protected), but it is not listed in the 1979 Birds Directive (79/409 / EEC).
Humans and green woodpeckers
Folk beliefs, medicine and culture
Green woodpeckers as such only play a minor role in human cultural history, especially since they are of no importance either as pests or as potential feeding and hunting birds. Together with the black woodpecker ( Dryocopus martius ), they were considered to be " rain birds ", as their contact calls, with the influence of the first warm fronts, announced the first major spring rains of the year.
Samuel Hahnemann reported in his apothecary lexicon 1793–1798 of the supposed healing power of the green woodpecker bones, which had been handed down but, in his opinion, did not exist:
"The ancients (in vain) added a diuretic power to the dried and powdered bones of this bird."
In a figurative sense, the term green woodpecker was mainly used as a term for an adolescent, cheeky know-it-all ("greenhorn"). In addition, it has been used to designate a forester or hunter since the 18th century and also for a police officer since the early 20th century.
Use in literature
The green woodpecker appears very seldom in the literature, commonly referred to as a woodpecker. The oldest literary mention can be found in the work The Birds of the Greek poet Aristophanes , who wrote:
“If you do according to my command and follow me, O divine youth,
you will be an Aar in the clouds! But if you refuse the gift,
you will not be a finch or a sparrow, or an eagle or a falcon or a green woodpecker "
There is also a mention of the green woodpecker in the German sagas of the Brothers Grimm . Here the spring root is mentioned in the legend :
- Spring root is obtained by wedging the nest of a green woodpecker (magpie or hoopoe) with a piece of wood; the bird, as he notices it, immediately flies away and knows how to find the wonderful root for which a person has still sought in vain. He brings them in his beak and wants to open his nest with them again; because if he holds it in front of the wooden wedge, he jumps out, as if driven by the strongest blow.
Johann Gaudenz von Salis-Seewis alluded to the noise development of the green woodpecker and wrote in his poem Die Einsiedelei 1789:
"Nothing breaks the silence of
the wilderness far and wide,
As if on dry branches
a green woodpecker picks and screams,
A
rab ' croaks on a high top of mossy fir trees,
And in the
crack in the rock a pigeon groans."
A central role in the green woodpecker plays in the story The Amber Witch of Wilhelm Meinhold . Here a supposed ghost or devil appears to a woman in the form of the green woodpecker and collects the hair of a dead man, which he transports into his knothole:
“For when she came back from her forbidden burial site one morning before the sun had risen, and descended into the forest, she heard a green woodpecker flying to the side (as certainly old Lise herself was) screaming so pitifully that she went into kicking the bushes to see what he had. So now this woodpecker sits on the earth in front of a flood of hair, as red and completely as it was like the old Seden, but roars with a beak as he becomes aware of them and crawls into a knothole with it. "
The transferred meanings were also adopted in the literature. In Gottfried Keller's novel Der Grüne Heinrich , for example, the young protagonist Heinrich Lee is referred to as a green woodpecker ( Heda, green woodpecker! Where out? ), On the one hand because of his inexperience, on the other hand because of his nickname given in the title of the novel. Jean Paul wrote in his novel Dr. Katzenberger's bathing trip :
"As I was ashamed of my nakedness, I didn't turn red, but so-called Prussian green, like a green woodpecker."
Bird of the year 2014
The German Nature Conservation Association and the State Association for Bird Protection in Bavaria have named the Green Woodpecker “ Bird of the Year 2014” in Germany. The election was announced on October 18, 2013. The green woodpecker serves here as a substitute for the orchard as a habitat, the endangerment of which is to be made aware as part of the campaign.
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Sources cited
- ↑ This bird is allowed to knock on wood - The green woodpecker is bird of the year 2014. (No longer available online.) In: Kleine Zeitung . October 19, 2013, archived from the original on July 29, 2014 ; accessed on December 14, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Swiss Ornithological Institute, Sempach
- ↑ after Beaman and Madge 1998, page 514
- ↑ Nordrhein-Westfälische Ornithologengesellschaft (Hrsg.): The birds of Westphalia. Contributions to the avifauna of North Rhine-Westphalia, vol. 37. Bonn 2002. ( ISBN 3-931921-06-9 )
- ↑ Einhard Bezzel & Franz Lechner: The birds of the Werdenfelser country. Kilda-Verlag, Greven 1978. ( ISBN 3-921427-27-4 ): p. 124ff.
- ↑ Hans Schmid: Green, gray and small woodpecker ( Picus viridis, P. canus, Dendrocopos minor ) in Switzerland: current distribution and population situation. Ornithole. Obs. 90, 1993: pp. 201-212
- ↑ after Blume 1996, page 71
- ↑ according to ringing analyzes, Glutz von Blotzheim 2001, page 952
- ↑ Glutz von Blotzheim 2001, page 955
- ↑ Blume 1996, page 71
- ↑ a b Bauer and Berthold 1997, page 285
- ↑ a b Bird-Life Conservation Series No. 12, 2004, cited above. after Wagner 2006
- ↑ after Wagner 2006
- ↑ from Samuel Hahnemann: Apothekerlexikon Vol. 1/2, p. 380 - quoted from The Birth of Homeopathy . Digital Library Special, Directmedia Publishing Berlin ( ISBN 3-89853-016-7 )
- ↑ quoted from Heinz Küpper: Dictionary of German colloquial language . Digital Library 36, Directmedia Publishing Berlin ( ISBN 3-89853-436-7 )
- ^ Aristophanes: Die Vögel - quoted from Dicht der Antike , Digitale Bibliothek 30, Directmedia Publishing Berlin ( ISBN 3-89853-430-8 )
- ^ Brothers Grimm : The Springwurzel - quoted from German literature from Luther to Tucholsky . Digital Library 125, Directmedia Publishing Berlin ( ISBN 3-89853-525-8 )
- ^ Johann Gaudenz von Salis-Seewis: Die Einsiedelei - quoted from German literature from Luther to Tucholsky . Digital Library 125, Directmedia Publishing Berlin ( ISBN 3-89853-525-8 )
- ^ Wilhelm Meinhold: Die Bernsteinhexe - quoted from German literature from Luther to Tucholsky . Digital Library 125, Directmedia Publishing Berlin ( ISBN 3-89853-525-8 )
- ^ Gottfried Keller: The green Heinrich (first version) in Complete Works in Eight Volumes , Aufbau Verlag Berlin 1958–1961; Vol. 3, p. 435 - quoted from German literature from Luther to Tucholsky . Digital Library 125, Directmedia Publishing Berlin ( ISBN 3-89853-525-8 )
- ↑ Jean Paul: The Katzenberg in Works Volume 1–6, Hanser Verlag Munich 1959–1963; Vol. 6, p. 197 - quoted from German literature from Luther to Tucholsky . Digital Library 125, Directmedia Publishing Berlin ( ISBN 3-89853-525-8 )
- ↑ The green woodpecker is bird of the year 2014. Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU), October 18, 2013, accessed on December 7, 2014 .
literature
- Hans-Günther Bauer, Peter Berthold : The breeding birds of Central Europe. Existence and endangerment. Aula-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1997, pages 285-286, ISBN 3-89104-613-8
- Hans-Günther Bauer, Peter Berthold, Peter Boye, Wilfried Knief, Peter Südbeck, Klaus Witt: Red List of Germany's Breeding Birds . 2002, Bird Protection Reports 39: 13-60.
- Mark Beaman, Steve Madge : Handbook of Bird Identification. Europe and Western Palearctic. Eugen Ulmer Verlag 1998, p. 532, ISBN 3-8001-3471-3 .
- Dieter Blume : Black Woodpecker, Gray Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker. Neue Brehm-Bücherei Vol. 300, Westarp-Wissenschaften, Magdeburg 1996, ISBN 3-89432-497-X .
- Urs N. Glutz von Blotzheim , Kurt M. Bauer (Ed.): Handbook of the birds of Central Europe , Volume 9; 2nd edition, AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1994, pages 943-964, ISBN 3-89104-562-X
- Wolfgang Scherzinger : The woodpeckers in the Bavarian Forest National Park . Series of publications by the Bavarian State Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forests, Issue 9, 1982.
- David Snow , Christopher Perrins (Eds.): The Complete Birds of the Western Palaearctic. Oxford University Press 1998, CD-ROM, ISBN 0-19-268579-1 .
- Siegfried Wagner: Green woodpecker , in: Avifauna Carinthia 1. The breeding birds . Publishing house of the Natural Science Association for Carinthia, Klagenfurt 2006, p. 192f, ISBN 3-85328-039-0
Web links
- Picus viridis in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed October 13 of 2008.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Picus viridis in the Internet Bird Collection
- Age and gender characteristics (PDF; 3.8 MB) by J. Blasco-Zumeta and G.-M. Heinze (Eng.)
- Green woodpecker's feathers
Peregrine Falcon (1971) | Little Owl (1972) | Kingfisher (1973) | House martin (1974) | Golden Plover (1975) | Hoopoe (1976) | Barn Owl (1977) | Crane (1978) | Barn Swallow (1979) | Black Grouse (1980) | Black Woodpecker (1981) | Curlew (1982) | Sand martin (1983) | White stork (1984) | Red-backed shrike (1985) | Rook (1986) | Whinchat (1987) | Reversible Neck (1988) | Reed Warbler (1989) | Oriole (1990) | Partridge (1991) | Robin (1992) | Little Ringed Plover (1993) | White stork (1994) | Nightingale (1995) | Lapwing (1996) | Great Spotted Woodpecker (1997) | Skylark (1998) | Goldammer (1999) | Red Kite (2000) | Great Crested Grebe (2001) | House Sparrow (2002) | Common Swift (2003) | Wren (2004) | Eagle Owl (2005) | Kleiber (2006) | Kestrel (2007) | Cuckoo (2008) | Kingfisher (2009) | Cormorant (2010) | Redstart (2011) | Jackdaw (2012) | Common Snipe (2013) | Green Woodpecker (2014) | Habicht (2015) | Goldfinch (2016) | Tawny Owl (2017) | Star (2018) | Skylark (2019) | Turtle Dove (2020)
