Grey-headed woodpecker colour. The typical woodpecker markings are small and not particularly conspicuous. It has a grey head with black moustache, and the male has a red crown. It has a shorter neck, slimmer bill and slightly rounder head than the green woodpecker. Calls made by the European green woodpecker and grey-headed woodpecker resemble each other. The far-carrying territorial song of the grey-headed woodpecker is more melodic and cleaner than the explosive "laughter" of the green woodpecker. The call series consists of ten to fifteen utterances of declining pitch and gradual slowing. The verse may appear melancholic and "dying". The territorial song
Little green woodpecker its crown and nape. The juvenile bird has greener upperparts with pale streaks, and its underparts are paler. The little green woodpecker is found in West Africa, in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Ghana. Its range would extend east to South Sudan, Uganda, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo if "C. cailliautii permista" were included in this species. Its habitat is edges of primary and secondary forests, clearings, and mosaics of forest and shrub, at elevations up to . This woodpecker eats arboreal ants. Its calls are a plaintive "huweeeeh", a harsh "whee", "kewik",