Woodpeckers are a family of birds found in all parts of the world except Australia and New Zealand. You will see woodpeckers from many countries in the book. Those which are found in Britain are the Green Woodpecker and the Greater Spotted Woodpecker.

The greatest variety of woodpeckers live in tropical rainforests. Some woodpeckers even live in deserts, where they use a cactus as though it were a tree.

There are many different kinds of woodpecker, so you will see many shapes, sizes and colours of woodpecker, but they have many things in common. Many are green, but others are grey and white. Most have splashes of red or yellow colour on their heads and often on their breast. They all make holes for nesting and they have special kinds of feet, legs, tails, beak and head. These are all adaptations so that woodpeckers can live in the trees.

Woodpeckers have many special characteristics. These are called adaptations. Woodpeckers have long chisel-shaped beaks and long, sticky and bristle-covered tongues. They also have a thin extra eyelid, which closes just before the beak strikes the wood. This acts almost like safety glasses, protecting the eyes from splinters that might fly out of the hole. They also have feathers over their nostrils to stop splinters entering the nose. They have a specially-adapted brain, for example, which is not affected by the hammering action of their beaks.