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 woodpecker Little woodpecker The little woodpecker ("Veniliornis passerinus") is a species of bird in the family Picidae, the woodpeckers, piculets, and wrynecks. It is found in a wide range of wooded habitats in a large part of South America east of the Andes, and generally common. Unlike other similar and comparably sized members of the genus "Veniliornis", the little woodpecker lacks a contrasting yellow nape. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the little woodpecker in his "Ornithologie" based on a specimen collected in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). He used the French name "Le petit pic de