I have been photographing a family of great spotted woodpeckers throughout this year, with images captured of both the adult female and the juvenile bird`s, but the male bird was proving to be a bit more tricky, that is the challenge of bird photography and something I really enjoy nothing guaranteed so to speak, the weather forecast was for one of those beautiful clear and dry days with plenty of sunshine which really shows off the wonderful autumn colours well, a great time of the year in my opinion, so I set off bright and early to my local area feeling very confident of finally capturing an image I was happy with of the male great spotted woodpecker, and after all the time and effort I had put in for me personally it was well worth it, for reference the male bird has a bright red band of colour on the back of its head and the female does not, the juvenile bird has a bright red patch of colour on top of it`s head for anyone who would like to be able to tell them apart in the field, image below.

Great spotted woodpecker maleLatin name Dendrocopos major

http://www.paul-green.org/woodpeckers