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The UK Bird Atlas

Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis)Where and when to see it in the UK

Resident · reporting peaks March to April · Woodpeckers · BOU category AF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis)
Alexis Lours, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Green Woodpecker: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Green Woodpecker has been recorded in 1,628 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (55%) in records to 2026. Resident in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Wales and Scotland. Reporting peaks in March to April.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
27% or more of visits
High
13% to 27%
Moderate
6% to 13%
Low
under 6%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 58%8%Low
February 70%10%Very high
March 97%13%Very high
April 96%13%Very high
May 61%8%Low
June 52%7%Low
July 80%11%Very high
August 100%14%Very high
September 76%11%Very high
October 70%10%Very high
November 63%9%Very high
December 56%8%Low

Squares with the highest reporting rate in March

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NH80Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NJ02Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NJ53Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NN85Perth and Kinross, Scotland100%Very high
NO04Perth and Kinross, Scotland100%Very high
NO10Perth and Kinross, Scotland100%Very high
NO22Perth and Kinross, Scotland100%Very high
NO32Fife, Scotland100%Very high
NO49Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NO69Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.