Grey-headed woodpecker grey-headed woodpecker prefers undisturbed and ancient forests with natural cohort structure as well as riparian forests for breeding, the destruction of such habitat is the greatest threat to the species. Grey-headed woodpecker The grey-headed woodpecker ("Picus canus"), also known as the grey-faced woodpecker, is a Eurasian member of the woodpecker family, Picidae. Along with the more commonly found European green woodpecker and the Iberian green woodpecker, it is one of three closely related sister species found in Europe. Its distribution stretches across large parts of the central and Eastern Palaearctic, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The grey-headed woodpecker
European green woodpecker nest in Romania found that 10 species of ant were fed to the chicks. During the first 10 days, the young received an average of 15 g each, from days 10–20, 39.5 g, and from day 20, 49.3 g. The seven chicks consumed an estimated 1.5 million ants and pupae before leaving the nest. The beak is relatively weak and used for pecking in soft wood only. In common with other woodpecker species, the green woodpecker's tongue is long (10 cm) and has to be curled around its skull. It lacks the barbs of the Dendrocopos woodpeckers and black woodpecker,