GREEN WOODPECKER (Picus viridis) MARCH
What a beautiful sight! The Green Woodpecker is a colourful character with its laughing cry being one of the defining sounds of British woodland, copse and plantations. In English folklore the laughing call is also known as Yaffle or Yaffingale as well as Laughing Betsy. It feasts on ants and catches its prey with its extra long tongue, so long that it coils within its skull in order to fit inside its head. Its home is in tree holes that it bores itself with its powerful beak over a period of weeks. These birds roost early, and repose in their holes at night. The Green Woodpecker is the largest of the three breeding-Woodpecker species to be found in England and Wales. This bird can only ascend on trees; any descent is performed by a retrograde motion of flying downwards with laboured fluttering of its wings making a rustling noise. If you have a lawn outside your home you may well have caught sight of this most welcome visitor.