Woodpeckers

[kevinh]

My mother-in-law (again) says that woodpeckers attack and eat smaller birds. Is this True?

[Cetti]

Always listen to your mother-in-law kevin as sadly she's right!

I'm open to correction but I believe the culprit is just the Great Spotted Woodpecker. The Lesser Spotted is quite a rarity and the Green is chiefly a ground feeder eating mainly ants.

The targets are mainly small birds such as Blue ??? etc but as they have very large broods to compensate for the losses numbers remain unaffected.

[rinkytink]

"Although feeding their own young largely on insects and spiders, great spotted woodpeckers are notorious for taking the eggs and young of other hole-nesting birds (especially t*ts and house martins)."

http://www.birdsofbritain.co.uk/bird-guide/g-s-woo
dpecker.htm

I don't think that they would feed on a fully grown bird of any species, but do attack nests and feed on the eggs and newly born chicks.