New breeding records of Middle Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos medius in Abruzzo, Italy

Abstract

In 2007 we found a pair of Middle Spotted Woodpeckers Dendrocopos medius nesting in an old beech stump in the Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise (PNALM); this was the third documented breeding record for the species in Abruzzo. This nesting territory, in a mature beech forest, was also occupied during the years 2008-2011. In this report we also describe the discovery of a new breeding area in Abruzzo which holds at least four more breeding pairs of this species.