Following on from The Wryneck (published 2022, click here for my review) and The Green Woodpecker (published 2023, click here for my review) woodpecker expert and enthusiast, Gerard Gorman, brings you a volume which deals with five black and white woodpeckers (Lesser Spotted, Middle Spotted, Great Spotted, Syrian, and White-backed), two of which occur in the UK.
There are numerous very good colour images of these black and white birds (with a variety of red bits) and distribution maps. Each species account documents what is known about the species across a wide range of sensible headings relating to anatomy, behaviour, breeding statistics etc. This is essentially a compendium of what is known and a factual account. Having noticed the longevity record for one species I then searched for them for the other species – they are easy to find and mostly come from a single source but the author’s links with other woodpecker specialists means that one of these is a pers. comm. from someone who is likely to know.
There is little attempt to compare and contrast across the species and no introductory chapter and no final chapter bringing interesting similarities and differences together. There are a few areas of Europe where all five species can be found together but in most areas just two or three of these closely related species occur. I’m not sure what are the most important factors that determine how many of the five you get in different locations but I suspect that the author has a pretty good idea and this is the type of thing that could be drawn out in a final chapter.
Will we be treated to volumes covering Black, Three-toed and Grey-headed Woodpeckers too? If the author and his publisher press on with more woodpecker books I’d encourage them to let their hair down a bit and tell a few more stories and include some ecological speculation too.
This book is an invaluable introduction to the studies carried out on these pied woodpeckers, in many countries and written up in many different languages. It is a very accessible and well-structured account.
The cover features the cutest of woodpeckers on this side of the Atlantic and I’d give it 9/10.
The Pied Woodpeckers: the natural history of Europe’s black and white woodpeckers by Gerard Gorman is published by Pelagic.
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