Gecinus viridis
A common resident.
This is the only common Woodpecker in the county, and has been seen by us in all parts of it where there are trees. It is very common at Stone Hall, where we always had a nest close to the house, and where the cry of the bird was so incessantly heard throughout the spring and summer that we ceased to regard it as being in any degree a weather sign. Mr. Dix states that in his district it was common in the wooded dingles, and more so where there are old trees, particularly ash.
With us the bird generally placed its nest in a decayed sycamore, and we were astonished one day at the heat communicated by the young birds to the wood when we put our hand on the tree just beneath the entrance hole to the nest. Many trees are worked upon by the birds before they finally select the site for the nest ; they doubtless find some of them harder than they expected, and, after boring them to some depth, leave them for a softer and more decayed tree.