This woodpecker occurs in all types of woodlands and eats a variety of foods, being capable of extracting seeds from pine cones, insect larvae from inside trees or eggs and chicks of other birds from their nests.

When the young fledge they are fed by the adults for about ten days, each parent taking responsibility for feeding part of the brood.

It has a huge range and large population, with no widespread threats, so it is classed as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

[1] The great spotted woodpecker was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Picus major.

However, mitochondrial DNA data suggests that the Caspian Sea region's Dendrocopos major poelzami, Japanese D. m. japonicus and Chinese D. m. cabanisi may all merit full species status.

[6][7] The fossil subspecies D. m. submajor lived during the Middle Pleistocene Riss glaciation (250,000 to 300,000 years ago) when it was found in Europe south of the ice sheet.

It is sometimes treated as a distinct species, but did not differ significantly from the extant great spotted woodpecker, whose European subspecies are probably its direct descendants.

[6] The various subspecies differ in plumage, the general pattern being that northern forms are larger, heavier-billed and whiter beneath, as predicted by Bergmann's rule, so north Eurasian D. m. major and D. m. kamtschaticus are large and strikingly white, whereas D. m. hispanicus in Iberia and D. m. harterti in Corsica and Sardinia are somewhat smaller and have darker underparts.

In Morocco, D. m. mauritanus is pale below with red in the centre of its breast, and birds breeding at higher altitudes are larger and darker than those lower in the hills.

[12] The call of the great spotted woodpecker is a sharp kik, which may be repeated as a wooden rattling krrarraarr if the bird is disturbed.

Drumming on dead trees and branches, and sometimes suitable man-made structures,[6] serves to maintain contact between paired adults and to advertise ownership of territory.

[15] The species ranges across Eurasia from Ireland to Japan, and in North Africa from Morocco to Tunisia; it is absent only from those areas too cold or dry to have suitable woodland habitat.

[7] It is found in a wide variety of woodlands, broadleaf, coniferous or mixed, and in modified habitats like parks, gardens and olive groves.

[6] The great spotted woodpecker is mainly resident year-round, but sizeable movements can occur when there are shortages of pine and spruce cones in the north of the range.

[6] Due to deforestation, this woodpecker was extirpated in Ireland in the seventeenth century,[16] but the island has been naturally recolonised, with the first proven nesting in County Down in 2007.

These include the zygodactyl arrangement of the foot, with two toes facing forward and two back,[21] and the stiff tail feathers that are used as a prop against the trunk.

[23] In the great spotted woodpecker and most of its relatives, the hinge where the front of the skull connects with the upper mandible is folded inwards, tensioned by a muscle that braces it against the shock of the impact when the bill is hammering on hard wood.

[25] Great spotted woodpeckers are strongly territorial, typically occupying areas of about 5 ha (12 acres) year-round,[26] which are defended mainly by the male, a behaviour which attracts females.

Each parent then takes responsibility for feeding part of the brood for about ten days, during which time they normally remain close to the nest tree.

[15] Fat-rich plant products such as nuts and conifer seeds are particularly important as winter food in the north of the woodpecker's range, and can then supply more than 30% of the bird's energy requirements.

It will use an "anvil" on which to hammer hard items, particularly pine, spruce, and larch cones, but also fruit, nuts, and hard-bodied insects.

[13] The woodpecker is able to extend its tongue so far because the hyoid bone to which it is attached has long flexible "horns" that wind around the skull and can move forward when required.

[22][35] Woodland birds of prey such as the Eurasian sparrowhawk and the northern goshawk hunt the great spotted woodpecker.

[36] This woodpecker is a host of the blood-feeding fly Carnus hemapterus, and its internal parasites may include the spiny-headed worm Prosthorhynchus transversus.

Numbers have increased in Europe due to the planting of forests, which provides breeding habitat, and more available dead wood, and this species has profited from its flexibility with regard to types of woodland and its ability to thrive in proximity to humans.

The Canary Islands populations of the subspecies D. m. canariensis on Tenerife and D. m. thanneri on Gran Canaria face a potential threat from the exploitation of the local pine forests.