Great spotted woodpeckers have recovered well in the UK and are increasingly common garden visitors, but their predation of nestlings raises welfare and management questions for garden bird lovers.
Great spotted woodpecker predation of nestlings raises a welfare tension common in nature — the welfare of predator and prey are both real. Nestlings extracted from nest boxes and killed experience acute welfare harm; the woodpecker is expressing entirely natural foraging behaviour necessary for its own welfare and reproduction. From a garden bird management perspective, metal plates on nest boxes that prevent woodpecker access are the welfare-positive intervention that protects the nestlings without harming the woodpecker. Woodpecker welfare in gardens is otherwise well-served by provision of peanut and suet feeders in winter, and by maintaining dead wood in gardens that provides both drumming sites and invertebrate prey.