Yaffle. The very first time I heard this widely used British colloquial name for the Green Woodpecker I was instantly taken by it. Thought to have been derived in the Eighteenth Century from the call made by the species, yaffle so well expresses the Zeitgeist of this ground-loving member of the woodpecker family that once learned it’s difficult to call it by its official common name.
Therefore it’s not surprising that such a familiar species graces the cover, along with another much beloved British woodpecker, the Great Spotted Woodpecker, of the new RSPB Spotlight volume Woodpeckers by Gerard Gorman from Bloomsbury.
Focusing on the lives and behaviors of the aforementioned Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers as well as the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Wryneck, but venturing farther afield to bring his readers’ attention to the remarkable diversity of larger global Picidae family, Mr. Gorman provides a lovely and highly readable overview in this little volume that should find a warm welcome amongst both novices as well as skilled naturalists alike.
