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Great Spotted Woodpeckers Excavated More Cavities per Tree in Managed Polish Forests

Great spotted woodpecker beside a nest cavity in a tree trunk
Conservation · Habitat protection

A study in north-eastern Poland found that great spotted woodpeckers (Dendrocopos major) used nesting trees differently in protected and commercially managed forest. The research, published on 5 February 2026, compared 173 nesting trees in Wigry National Park and the managed State Forest part of the Augustów Forest.

Of the 173 trees, 71 were in the national park and 102 in managed forest. The researchers recorded tree species, tree condition, age and size, cavity height, the number of cavity entrances and characteristics of the surrounding stands.

Aspen was strongly preferred

Aspen was the most strongly selected nesting tree in both forest types. It accounted for 41% of nesting trees in Wigry National Park and 28% in the managed forest. Scots pine was used much more often in the managed area, accounting for about 27% of nesting trees there compared with 10% in the national park.

The condition of the wood was also important. More than 80% of all cavity trees showed wood-decaying fungi, and the woodpeckers strongly preferred trees whose wood had been softened by fungal decay for excavation.

Tree species used for nesting by great spotted woodpeckers in protected and managed Polish forests
Tree species used for nesting in Wigry National Park and the managed State Forests. Figure 3 from Zawadzka & Zawadzki (2026), Forests, CC BY 4.0.

More cavities in the same tree under commercial management

The clearest differences between the two forest-management regimes were a higher proportion of deciduous nesting trees and fewer cavities per individual tree in the national park. In the commercially managed forest, multiple cavities were excavated in the same tree more frequently.

Comparison of great spotted woodpecker nesting-tree parameters in protected and managed Polish forests
Comparison of nesting-tree parameters between Wigry National Park and the managed State Forests, including the number of cavity entrances per tree. Figure 2 from Zawadzka & Zawadzki (2026), Forests, CC BY 4.0.

The authors interpret the higher frequency of multiple cavities in single trees in managed forest as evidence of lower availability of suitable cavity trees. In the national park, suitable trees were more often available for birds to excavate new cavities in different trees in subsequent years.

The researchers recommend retaining more trees in poor health in commercially managed forests and maintaining a mixture of softer deciduous trees such as aspen, birch and black alder. These trees provide wood that is more suitable for cavity excavation and can help maintain the nesting structures used by great spotted woodpeckers and other cavity-dependent forest animals.

Sources and image credit

  1. Zawadzka, D., & Zawadzki, G. (2026). The influence of forest protection level on nest site selection by the great spotted woodpecker: Evidence from the Augustów Forest, NE Poland. Forests, 17(2), 215. https://doi.org/10.3390/f17020215Primary peer-reviewed open-access article published 5 February 2026 under CC BY 4.0. The study compared 173 great spotted woodpecker nesting trees in Wigry National Park and managed State Forests in the Augustów Forest.

Image: M.Mietzner / Wikimedia Commons — female great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) beside a nest cavity at the Weinberg natural monument near Eggmühl, Germany, photographed 24 May 2020. Representative nesting photograph, not a bird from the Polish study. · CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Source

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