Dear All,
The name of this bird is obvious! It is a woodpecker and it has three toes. However, it is easier to recognise the (male) bird by the yellow spot on the head than by counting toes! Since it has only one back toe, it uses the strong tail to support itself on the tree as seen in second photo.
The three-toed woodpecker is a siberian taiga bird, distributed over most of the taiga belt of Russia and into Fennoscandia. In Norway it is hardly ever seen west of the continental divide, so for us "Bergensere", it is exciting. This one was outside our cabin at Ustaoset sitting on our hammock-tree on November 3, 2013. It was spotted by Aurora!
There are many dead trees near our cabin. We have been doing some work to remove these old trees. The visit of this woodpecker shows that we should not do this job too well. It needs old dead trees to survive, and is threatened by modern forestry management practices where all the old trees are removed.
Best regards,
Hans
