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
Yellow-crowned woodpecker red belly patch. Irregular brown cheek and neck patches. Female has yellowish crown and nape. In male nape scarlet and fore-crown yellow. Yellow-crowned woodpecker The yellow-crowned woodpecker ("Leiopicus mahrattensis") or Mahratta woodpecker is a species of small pied woodpecker found in the Indian subcontinent. The Yellow-crowned woodpecker was originally described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 under the binomial name "Picus mahrattensis". The taxonomic committee of the British Ornithologists' Union have recommended that the genera Leiopicus and "Dendrocoptes" and are combined into a larger "Dendropicos". Some taxonomists place this species in the genus "Dendrocopos". A medium-small (17.5 cm,