Why no Woodpeckers in Ireland (1 Viewer)

[The Raptor]

I was surprised to know that there are no Woodpeckers in Ireland, does anyone have any answers for why this should be. While in Australia recently I was also surprised to find out that there are none there also.

Rod.

 

[scary-canary]

No doubt St Patrick cast them out, along with the snakes.

 

[Strandman]

I was surprised to know that there are no Woodpeckers in Ireland, does anyone have any answers for why this should be. While in Australia recently I was also surprised to find out that there are none there also.

Rod.

I think (to my surprise when I first heard it) it is put down to the effect of historic deforestation in Ireland. There has even been talk of reintroducing Great Spotted Woodpecker..

 

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

The irish thought they were potatoes

 

[London Birder]

hilarious Jimmy, don't give up the day job ...

something to do with land bridges, the last ice age and woodpeckers generally bottling it for the most part when it comes to sea crossings ... or something like that

 

[Ronayne88]

Ah come on now, be fair. We do have one woodpecker in ireland and it lives in a housing estate in Dublin

 

[London Birder]

hasn't got a big white bill has it?

 

[jurek]

No doubt St Patrick cast them out, along with the snakes.

Ahhh... you were first 8-P

Ireland became separated from Britain and mainland soon after Ice Age, when it was still tundra or semi-tundra. Woodpeckers are sedentary and never crossed the sea.

Or, alternatively, they gt extinct during historic times, when most Irish forests were cut.

 

[RJElse]

There has even been talk of reintroducing Great Spotted Woodpecker..

Were they once found in Ireland? If so, then after becoming extinct there due to deforestation or other causes, they are unlikely to recolonise due to being reluctant to cross stretches of sea etc. None of the European woodpeckers are vagrant in Britain for he same reason. Our woodpeckers are not migratory either, and so highly unlikely to find their way to Ireland accidentally.

 

[Strandman]

Were they once found in Ireland?

Maybe...

"The great spotted bred here in the past; its bones were found by archaeologists at two caves in County Clare. Ireland was once covered in trees and conditions would have been ideal for woodpeckers. Then the forests were cut down; there was nowhere for the birds to live and they became extinct. In 1900, only 1% of the land of Ireland was forested and prospects for woodland species were dim. Thanks to State forestry programmes, tree cover has now reached 9%. So what are the chances that woodpeckers will return?"

 

[London Birder]

I remember very well hearing what I initially took to be a GSW calling from the memorial gardens on Dublin's north side in 1997 ... thoughts of covering myself in Dendrocopus glory however vanished rapidly on discovering a very convincing mimic in the shape of a Starling ...

 

[KnockerNorton]

I remember very well hearing what I initially took to be a GSW calling from the memorial gardens on Dublin's north side in 1997 ... thoughts of covering myself in Dendrocopus glory however vanished rapidly on discovering a very convincing mimic in the shape of a Starling ...

Begs the question...where did the starling hear it?

 

[London Birder]

it did beg it most certainly, sadly, not one I could answer, but presumably a migrant

 

[Steve G]

Ahhh... you were first 8-P

Ireland became separated from Britain and mainland soon after Ice Age, when it was still tundra or semi-tundra. Woodpeckers are sedentary and never crossed the sea.

Or, alternatively, they gt extinct during historic times, when most Irish forests were cut.

GSWs cross the North Sea into the Northern Isles (Shetland/Orkneys)
I'm sure I have read that White-backed & Black Woodpeckers were possibly once UK natives & that extensive deforestation drove them out. The UK was so extensively deforested in the late Iron age that we probably lost a lot of our woodland fauna -Ireland was even worse as 'civilisation' reached the Emerald Isle first!

 

[cayoncreekman]

hasn't got a big white bill has it?

I'm still laughing.

Or perhaps Irish woodpeckers only ate snakes and....

 

[Strandman]

GSWs cross the North Sea into the Northern Isles (Shetland/Orkneys)
I'm sure I have read that White-backed & Black Woodpeckers were possibly once UK natives & that extensive deforestation drove them out. The UK was so extensively deforested in the late Iron age that we probably lost a lot of our woodland fauna -Ireland was even worse as 'civilisation' reached the Emerald Isle first!

I'd love it to be true, what with White-backed being pretty much my #1 bird. I think there are some of the bigger beetles (and ants in case of Black) that aren't present here in UK and seem pretty key to their requirements on the European mainland. So when the first (next) Black makes it here and dives into the nearest forest it might be a bit disappointed with what it finds.

 

[Edward]

GSWs cross the North Sea into the Northern Isles (Shetland/Orkneys)

They can do even better than that, there are several records of GSW from Iceland, which is an 800 mile open water flight.

E

 

[Keith Glasgow]

I was surprised to know that there are no Woodpeckers in Ireland, ....

or Tawny Owls, Nightingales, Nuthatchs, Hobbys, Goosanders, Firecrests, ......Weasels, Common Shrews, many Voles, Moles etc the list goes on!

Zek.

 

[cayoncreekman]

So it wasn't the great potato famine that infused Irish blood into every second North American. The Irish were just keen birders and they emigrated on mass to where the woodpeckers were. Newfoundland was perfect...lots of woodpeckers but no snakes.

 

[David FG]

or Tawny Owls, Nightingales, Nuthatchs, Hobbys, Goosanders, Firecrests, ......Weasels, Common Shrews, many Voles, Moles etc the list goes on!

Zek.

Reminds me of an afternoon when after lunching not wisely but too well and perhaps too liquidly in Sandycove (not far from Dublin), a friend and I had a long and incredibly intellectual (or so it seemed to us at the time - odd what alcohol does to the perceptions) conversation about the unlikelihood of us being savaged by moles.

We weren't.