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
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