Although feeding their own young largely on insects and spiders, great spotted woodpeckers are notorious for taking the eggs and young of other holenesting birds (especially tits and house martins).
Usually a new nest is bored each spring rarely less than 10 to 12ft from the ground and often considerably higher. Both parent woodpeckers excavate and this task occupies between two and three weeks.

The creamy white eggs, five to seven in number, are laid during the second half of May. But many pairs are dispossessed by starlings and unable to breed until early June.