Voice
A single 'kik' and a strongly whistled descending series of upto 20 'pyoo pyopyopyopyopyo' notes, slowing after a fast start. Drums quite regularly, can be loud but is mostly a short, quiet roll lasting 1 - 1.5 seconds, rather even-pitched, neither fading nor slowing.
Grey-headed Woodpecker (Picus canus) [XC793444]
by Baltasar Pinheiro from Offenbach (near Langen), Darmstadt, Hessen, Germany (drumming)
Grey-headed Woodpecker (Picus canus) [XC624710]
by Tomas Berg from ROD Browarnik (near Tychy), Tychy, \u015bl\u0105skie, Poland (song)
Subspecies
Has hybridized with Eurasian Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis) in central Europe. Subspecies often divided into two main groups, the northern "canus group" of two taxa and southern and eastern "guerini group" of seven taxa, with two other isolated forms in the highlands of Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. Subspecies intergrade in many areas. Several other subspecies have been described throughout species' vast range, but differ in only very minor, insignificant characters; thus, named subspecies perspicuus (Bulgaria), biedermanni (Altai Mts), zimmermanni (north-eastern China), perpallidus (Manchuria, Ussuriland, Korea), setschuanus (Sichuan) and gyldenstolpei (north-eastern Indian Subcontinent) do not warrant separation.
The following 11 subspecies are recognised:
canus Gmelin, 1788 - Europe (from southern Scandinavia and France) east to western Siberia.
jessoensis Stejneger, 1886 - Eastern Siberia to Sakhalin and northern Japan (Hokkaido), south to north-eastern China and Korea.
sanguiniceps Baker, ECS, 1926 - North-eastern Pakistan, northern India and extreme western Nepal.
hessei Gyldenstolpe, 1916 - Nepal east to Myanmar, extreme southern China (southern Yunnan) and most of Thailand to Vietnam.
guerini (Malherbe, 1849) - North-central China south to central Sichuan. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Black-naped Woodpecker (Picus guerini).
kogo (Bianchi, 1906) - Central China, from Qinghai east to Shanxi and south to Sichuan.
sordidior (Rippon, 1906) - South-eastern Tibet east to western Sichuan, south to north-eastern Myanmar and Yunnan.
sobrinus Peters, JL, 1948 - North-eastern Vietnam and south-eastern China (Guangxi east to Fujian).
tancolo (Gould, 1863) - Taiwan and Hainan.
robinsoni (Ogilvie-Grant, 1906) - Mountains of central Peninsular Malaysia (Gunung Tahan and Cameron Highlands).
dedemi (van Oort, 1911) - Highlands of Sumatra. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Sumatran Woodpecker (Picus dedemi).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet