Great spotted woodpecker

Description:

Medium sized (about 22-23 cm in length) black and white woodpecker with red vent, very common. Portrayed here is female, recognized by the absence of red patch on the nape.

Habitat:

As said, this is a very common woodpecker here, base of Jura mountains and around the lake Leman (Geneva). Here seen in urban setting (but very calm small town and close to a big wooded + meadow park), and all together close to slopes of Jura. Dendrocopos major

Notes:

That winter, in 2014, I photographed woodpeckers several times from my window - they are really lovely sight, but a nightmare to capture... crawling all the time deep in branches... But the interesting thing is that we did not see them at all following winters (2015 & '16); and only once last winter, in Feb '17 (photo N°3) ...