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
Little green woodpecker Little green woodpecker The little green woodpecker or golden-backed woodpecker ("Campethera maculosa") is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in Africa, living in forest edges, clearings, and forest-shrub mosaics. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as a least-concern species. This species was described by Achille Valenciennes in 1826, as "Picus maculosus". It does not include any subspecies, but the subspecies "permista" of the green-backed woodpecker is sometimes included in this species. The two species have hybridised in Ghana. The little green woodpecker is about long and weighs about . The