European green woodpecker main food of the European green woodpecker is ants of the genera "Lasius" and "Formica" for which it spends much of its time foraging on the ground, though other insects and small reptiles are also taken occasionally. The bird's distinctive, elongated, cylindrical droppings often consist entirely of ant remains. At ant nests, it probes into the ground and licks up adult ants and their larvae. They have tongues that wrap to the back of their head. Green woodpeckers will often forage in short grazed or mown permanent grasslands where the availability of ant nests is high. A study of a
Lineated woodpecker Lineated woodpecker The lineated woodpecker ("Dryocopus lineatus") is a very large woodpecker which is a resident breeding bird from Mexico south to northern Argentina and on Trinidad. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the lineated woodpecker in his "Ornithologie" based on a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. He used the French name "Le pic noir hupé de Cayenne" and the Latin name "Picus niger cayanensis cristatus". Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766