⚠️ The UK’s smallest and rarest woodpecker, the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is a shy and elusive bird. It’s rapidly becoming one of our scarcest breeding birds, with substantial declines since the 1980s. 🧵⬇️ #bioacoustics #ornithology

Another lovely hidden valley 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Bioacoustics as a tool for the detection and monitoring of a scarce woodland bird – the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker paper now live in the latest British Birds journal. Read more:

Final proofs of @birdsinwales.bsky.social Welsh Bird Report 2024 uploaded to the printer in Treorchy. Many thanks to Ian Spence for his design work and Alun Lambert for the cover photo. Christmas holidays mean that it won't arrive with members until next month, but hopefully worth waiting for...

Our paper in December's @britishbirds.bsky.social describes success in using sound recording for detecting Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. We found Lesser Spots still present in woodlands where they have not been seen/heard for years. This is very exciting www.woodpecker-network.org.uk/index.php/ne...

Great to see three of our Sussex birders involved in co-authoring the LSW paper in the Dec copy of British Birds. PAM will be an important tool in the next National Bird Atlas. @sussexornitholo.bsky.social @britishbirds.bsky.social @mallalieum.bsky.social @kenandlindasmith.bsky.social

Thanks for choosing British Birds for this fascinating paper – important and fascinating work by the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Network and BTO. 👏

1/ A new study from @lesserspotnet.bsky.social & BTO in @britishbirds.bsky.social looks at how passive acoustic monitoring is an effective way of surveying Lesser Spotted Woodpecker ➡️ www.bto.org/LSWBioacoust... #bioacoustics #ornithology @simongillings.bsky.social @hosbirding.bsky.social

No Hawfinch as yet but nice to see the other regulars in Parkend.

Brilliant! Thanks for including one of my favourite ever pictures. Lots of fun this year with @stuckateur.bsky.social and @angusrobin.bsky.social Already looking forward to the spring

Wonderful morning at the Wyre forest rewarded with 20 min of a pair of lesser spotted woodpecker crisp morning perfect @lesserspotnet.bsky.social

Something to celebrate - our 2025 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker report - successful breeding season, the most nests monitored & highest number of chicks fledged per nest since we started in 2015. Acoustic monitoring giving amazing results too, download here www.woodpecker-network.org.uk/images/L_S_W...

Another gem found today in south wales for a potential LSW site

Nice to see so many marsh tits locally while assessing potential LSW sites

Currently a whopping 30% discount on the hardback and flexiback from the publisher (link in post below), just in time for Christmas presents! The Marsh Tit and the Willow Tit, a Poyser #ornithology monograph. #ukbirding

This is a brilliant initiative. Woodpecker Network is working with BTO to develop a passive acoustic monitoring module for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. Trials have proved successful in reliably detecting their drums and calls, revealing many new locations. We are taking this forward in spring 2026

This is a brilliant initiative. Woodpecker Network is working with BTO to develop a passive acoustic monitoring module for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. Trials have proved successful in reliably detecting their drums and calls, revealing many new locations.

Wonderful new forest for 5 days massive thanks to @kenandlindasmith.bsky.social for a wonderful tour of the forest hotspots a wealth of knowledge they shared to us

@richardkbroughton.bsky.social fantastic work on this book !👏I spend so much time in woods after LSW and I have these wonderful birds around me a great insight and another bird i will locally monitor

3 very different habitats favoured by lesser spotted woodpecker! Wet alder woodlands, mature orchards, ancient woodland, all showing promise

Another page from THE PIED WOODPECKERS. Due out in February. Hope you are enjoying these teasers!

Nice find on the Welsh borders LSW possibly this year too in a ash snag

Woke to a wild and wet morning on the Ceredigion coast, but that's fine as today is indoors at the annual @birdsinwales.bsky.social Conference @aberuni.bsky.social. Look forward to catching up and meeting new people.

A nice present from Mrs K for our anniversary!!

Local celeb wryneck !!

Africa what a place magical and moving over 300 species of birds and animals 4 different species of woodpecker with the cardinal woodpecker my favourite!!

Bearded woodpecker South Africa!

Kruger park what a place

Vismig Lesser-spotted Woodpecker at Falsterbo this morning 🪵

Nice to get a bit of TV time on one of our projects

Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers like lots of woodland, but not woodland management and forestry. Interesting implications for the remaining populations in Britain: expanding unmanaged (or lightly managed) natural native woodland seems helpful. #ukbirding #ornithology

In the week the @eounion.bsky.social met @bangoruniversity.bsky.social, latest findings from @lesserspotnet.bsky.social provide hope for this hard-to-find bird. @northwaleslive.bsky.social BirdNotes also rounds up the week's scarcer sightings. #BirdingWales www.birdnotes.wales/blog/experts...

Nice walk in the Wyre forest good to hear LSW calling the second time in a week at this location

Been getting some practice in with the passive recorders, found a goshawk kill ( tawny owl possibly) see these apex predators regularly in wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

A recent trip to wwt Slimbridge Green sandpiper, snipe, common sandpiper

6 2025 was one of the warmest springs ever. As a result, all LSW nests hatched after the peak of caterpillars on 30th April and had to switch to an aphid diet. An abundance of aphids in 2025 let LSW escape from phenological mismatch with the caterpillars

5 LSW nesting is getting earlier. Throughout its range LSW is a late nesting woodpecker. This is probably adaptive to help the survival of small chicks. But in any year the earlier nesting birds are more successful. They can switch nestling diet to aphids once the caterpillars are gone.

4 Nationally there is a long-term decline in numbers of young fledged per nest (P=0.007) from about 4 to about 2 …but 2025 was the best year since our project started! The number of chicks fledged was the highest since we started the project in 2015

3 LSW excavate a nesting cavity each year, always in dead trees or in dead branches of live trees. The tree species has changed over the years now pioneers like Birch, Alder, Willow and Rowan are favoured

2 Since 1968 the LSW population has declined severely and their breeding distribution has contracted with birds lost from East Anglia, NE, central and SW England and Wales. Population estimated at 2000-3000 pairs. Breeding success is low compared with the rest of Europe

1 Pleased to be presenting the latest results gathered by Woodpecker-Network volunteers on Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers and what we can do to conserve them better #BOUatEOU www.woodpecker-netwo...#BOUatEOU

7 Acknowledgements - Thanks to all these Woodpecker Network volunteers for searching for and monitoring nests in 2025 and to many more who helped in this and previous years collecting this amazing data on our beautiful woodpecker

I've made it to #EOU2025 in Bangor, and I'm starting with the #BOUatEOU symposium on #WoodlandBirds. Lovely talk by Ken Smith, who's been studying the nesting habits of #LesserSpottedWoodpeckers in the UK over decades. #CitizenScience @lesserspotnet.bsky.social @bou.org.uk @eounion.bsky.social

Effect of habitat quality and quantity on the occurrence and persistence of the lesser spotted woodpecker (Dryobates minor) across two time periods | doi.org/10.1016/j.bi... | Biological Conservation | #ornithology #conservation 🪶🌎

Love the woods ! Another site for LSW next year !

We will be representing Woodpecker Network the BOU Woodland Birds Conference on 18 August 2025 at Bangor. Ken is giving a talk ‘Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers: how citizen science is contributing to our understanding of this enigmatic species’ We are both looking forward to it bou.org.uk/wp-content/u...

We will also be posting a BlueSky presentation alongside our talk at 12:15 on Monday, so look out for it. Details here. bou.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Just arrived the plan for next spring the lesser spotted woodpecker survey for south and mid wales passive recording @lesserspotnet.bsky.social

Good to have our citizen science Bat recording project noted in The Times today. Since 2018 using our automatic bat detector at 100+ sites we have found bats everywhere in Chichester area, including rare Kuhl's Pipistrelle. See Chichester Natural History Society website www.chinats.org.uk/medmerry-3

A nice gift off mrs K @lesserspotnet.bsky.social