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
Green-backed woodpecker Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The habitat varies across the range, being variously wet or dry forest, gallery forest or flooded forest, scrub, savannah, coastal woodland, palm oil plantations, gardens or wooded villages. This is mostly a lowland bird, but it is found at altitudes of up to . The green-backed woodpecker feeds largely on ants and termites which it finds on trees. It often forages in pairs or may form part of small groups of mixed bird species. Green-backed woodpecker The green-backed woodpecker or little spotted woodpecker ("Campethera cailliautii"), is a