Great Spotted Woodpecker
Dendrocopos major
LCLeast Concern
- Family
- Woodpeckers (Picidae)
- Order
- Piciformes
Overview
The great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) is a medium-sized woodpecker with pied black and white plumage and a red patch on the lower belly. Males and young birds also have red markings on the neck or head. This species is found across the Palearctic including parts of North Africa. Across most of its range it is resident, but in the north some will migrate if the conifer cone crop fails.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Range and habitat
Continents
Countries
- Albania
- Algeria
- Andorra
- Armenia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- China
- Croatia
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- India
- Iran
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Kosovo
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Myanmar
- Netherlands
- North Korea
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Poland
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Tajikistan
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Vietnam
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Great spotted woodpecker
- eBird: sightings, maps and photos
- xeno-canto: sound recordings
- Birds of the World: full species account (subscription)
- BirdLife DataZone: status and threats
- IUCN Red List (threat status)
- AviList global checklist (taxonomy)
Last updated September 29, 2026.