Levaillant's woodpecker green woodpecker. The call is a loud ringing laugh, "plue, plue, plue", very like the green woodpecker’s yaffle, but perhaps slightly faster. This woodpecker’s insect food is captured by a rapid outward flick of the long tongue, and gummed to its tip by sticky saliva. Though a large and heavy bird it has an easy, bounding flight. The nest is a hole in a tree, and 4-8 glossy white eggs are laid on wood chips. Levaillant's woodpecker The Levaillant’s woodpecker or Levaillant’s green woodpecker ("Picus vaillantii") is a large African member of the woodpecker family Picidae. Levaillant's woodpecker is sometimes
European green woodpecker gives a noisy "kyü-kyü-kyück" while flying. The song is a loud series of 10-18 'klü' sounds which gets slightly faster towards the end and falls slightly in pitch. The female makes a thinner "pü-pü-pü-pü-pü-pü-pü". The flight is undulating, with 3–4 wingbeats followed by a short glide when the wings are held by the body. It can be distinguished from the similar, but smaller, grey-headed woodpecker by its yellowish, not grey, underparts, and the black lores and facial 'mask'. In Europe, its green upperparts and yellow rump can lead to confusion with the grey-headed woodpecker or possibly the female golden oriole,