European green woodpecker but is made sticky by secretions from the enlarged salivary glands. Heavy, prolonged snow cover makes feeding difficult for the green woodpecker and can result in high mortality, from which it may take 10 years for the population to recover. Ant nests can be located under the snow; one bird was observed to dig 85 cm to reach a nest. 'Professor Yaffle', the wooden bookend character in the 1974 children's animation series "Bagpuss", was based loosely upon the green woodpecker. 'Yaffle' was among many English folk names for the European green woodpecker relating to its laughing call; others include laughing
Kaempfer's woodpecker red malar and mottling on its crest. For comparison, the rufous-headed woodpecker is larger and has extensive black barring on the back and underparts. Little is known about its habitat preference, but it appears to be associated with bamboo (specifically "Guadua paniculata") growing in Cerrado and babassu palm forest; very unlike the humid forest and woodland where the related rufous-headed woodpecker is found. There is no evidence to suggest that it occurs in Caatinga. Rather, the authors who proposed the common name Caatinga woodpecker and association it with the caatinga habitat mistook a place in the caatinga called Uruçuí-Una for