Piciformes
Picidés
Dendrocoptes
medius
8 years
The Middle Spotted Woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker, about the same size as a Great Spotted Woodpecker. As with this bird, it is a multicolored, or 'bigarré' as we used to say, black and white with red. It is mostly associated with deciduous trees.
Sexual dimorphism is very weak. The adult is characterized by its white head topped with a bright vermillion red crown, brighter in males and less in females. This crown is not bordered in black as it is in the juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker with which it is often confused in summer. The forehead is pale beige. The black patch on the sides of the neck does not reach the beak or the nape, as in the Great Spotted Woodpecker. The bill is significantly weaker than that of the Great Spotted Woodpecker. Another important difference is on the lower side. Whereas in the Great Spotted Woodpecker, chest and belly are plain white, the woodpecker shows fine blackish stripes on these areas. Finally, the lower and central tail feathers, red in the Great Spotted Woodpecker, are more softened and tend to diffuse into a pinkish shade on the belly, especially in males. The chest is tinged russet. 4 subspecies are currently recognized which differ only in minor details of the plumage.
The juvenile resembles the adult, but is more faded, with less contrasting plumage, locally browned white areas, reduced and softer red of the tail feathers, that of the head less bright and limited, etc.
The cry of the Middle Spotted Woodpecker is a 'pik' that resembles that of the Great Spotted Woodpecker, but is less hard, less resounding, that can be translated as 'puk'. This cry is emitted singly, but very frequently in typical rapid series, without any equivalent for the Great Spotted Woodpecker. In this case, the notes are harder, the first of a slightly higher pitch, kikkukkukkukukkukkuk... and audible from far away.
The Middle Spotted Woodpecker does not drum like most other woodpeckers, but can emit sounds by tapping its beak on the wood around the nest. Due to the absence of drumming, it has developed a territorial song. This song is very particular and rather resembles a raptor's cry. It is a typical series of 5 to 15 sound (typically 12) drawn-out, plaintive and nasal cries, kieinn kieinn kieinn kieinn... at a rate of approximately one note per second.
Any research on forest birds involves a good knowledge of these vocal emissions. The first is often unknown and attributed to the Great Spotted Woodpecker by non-initiates.
The Middle Spotted Woodpecker is a bird of the primitive forest. It is attached to old deciduous forests, with a preference these days for pure or mixed oak forests, oak-hornbeam forests, oak-beech forests, and even in the SE of its range, pure beech forest.
The Middle Spotted Woodpecker is a shy, largely solitary bird that frequents the upper layers of forests where the view does not go far.
Wavy flight, characteristic of the Middle Spotted Woodpecker.
In the spring, the Middle Spotted Woodpecker is mainly insectivorous. It tends to feed on the upper layers of the forest, avoiding direct competition with the Great Spotted Woodpecker which spends more time feeding on the lower layers.
The Middle Spotted Woodpecker is already vocal from March to mid-April. At this time, its plaintive song can be heard in old oak trees. We can imagine the posturing of pairs forming, with fiery red caps erect, and the ensuing chases. Then, once the pair is established, it drills a nest cavity in a dead or decaying tree trunk or branch at heights of 5 to 10 metres, sometimes higher. The chosen tree is often an old oak, but can also be other species such as beech, cherry or white poplar. Both partners participate in this work which can take 2 to 3 weeks. Their beak doesn't possess the power of that of the Great Spotted Woodpecker and they use it with moderation.
The Middle Spotted Woodpecker (4 subspecies recognised) has an essentiallly European distribution (subspecies medius), in temperate latitudes, with an extension to the SE towards Turkey (subspecies anatoliae), the Caucasus (subspecies caucasicus) and the Zagros Mountains in Iran (subspecies sancijohannis), thereby also gaining altitude. It is sedentary or at most locally erratic. Variation between the 4 subspecies is largely clinal.
Middle Spotted Woodpecker is not currently considered threatened by BirdLife International, which estimates that the short-term demographic trend in Europe for 2000-2012 was on the rise. If there is decline somewhere, it is necessarily due to forest management, particularly to the fragmentation of oak forests, to the elimination of old or deteriorating trees, and even more so in a difficult climatic context where summer droughts stress trees and encourage their exploitation, possibly preventively. The future is therefore not necessarily rosy for the Middle Spotted Woodpecker.