Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) [XC881482]
by Jarek Matusiak from Gmina Giby (near G\u0142\u0119boki Br\u00f3d), sejne\u0144ski, Podlaskie, Poland (song)
Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) [XC871125]
by Bodo Sonnenburg from Szokolya, V\u00e1c District, Pest County, Hungary (call, flight call)
Nest
In an excavated hole in a tree or telegraph pole.
Subspecies
Size varies clinally, decreasing from north to southern and, in Asia, from east to west. Birds from southern Europe east to Transcaucasia sometimes separated as subspecies pinetorum (slightly smaller than northern breeders) and those from eastern Asia as reichenowi (on average larger than western Asian populations), but much overlap occurs in measurements, and racial separation not warranted.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
martius (Linnaeus, 1758) - Europe from Spain, France and Scandinavia (north to Arctic Circle), south to Balkans and northern Turkey, and eastern in broad belt across Asian taiga (south to Altai Mts, northern Mongolia) to Kamchatka, Sakhalin and Japan (Hokkaido, extreme northern Honshu), north-eastern China and Korea. Also Caucasus and northern Iran.
khamensis (Buturlin, 1908) - South-western China and Tibet (Qinghai south to north-western Yunnan).
The Reader's Digest Book of British Birds 1980, 3rd Edition, Drive Publications Ltd ISBN 0 340 25308 8
Birds in Colour Campbell, B., 1960, Penguin Books Ltd
The Pocket Guide to Nest and Eggs Fitter, R.S.R., 1954, Collins
RSPB Handbook of British Birds Holden, P., Cleeves, T., 2002, A & C Black ISBN 0 7136 5713 8
Birds of Britain and Europe Sterry, P., et al., 2001, AA Publishing ISBN 0 7495 3068 5
The Popular Handbook of British Birds Hollom, P.A.D., 1973, H.F. & G. Witherby Ltd ISBN 0 85493 002 7