The Green Woodpecker, Picus viridis, might almost be called the Green Lawnpecker given that ants are its favourite food, and these handsome birds are often seen probing the grass in gardens. Once they find an ants' nest, they insert their 10cm-long tongue, sticky with saliva, to catch and eat the ants, larvae, eggs and pupae. The number of ants consumed is impressive, if difficult to count precisely. One study of a green woodpecker nest with seven chicks concluded that the parent birds fed them a total of 1.5 million ants and pupae in the three weeks before the fledglings left the nest.

Video No.51 to #BrightenYourDay and connect with #nature during the #Covid19 #lockdown - keep an eye out for the birds in your neighbourhood as you exercise, and keep an ear out for the characteristic 'yaffle' call of the green woodpecker - this is one of those 'more often heard than seen' species.