After a handful of reports of wintering birds in County Limerick in the past eight years and a few reports of drumming more recently, 2020 provided the first verified evidence of breeding in the County. Murroe based birder, Gordon Young, heard drumming in a local woodland in mid March. He quickly discovered a pair exhibiting territorial behaviour and interacting with a third bird on one occasion. Both birds were regularly seen drumming in the woodland.
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| Female Great Spotted Woodpecker at Murroe. |
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| Female on the favoured drumming tree. |
Gordon and another local naturalist, Mike Quirke, monitored the area in the following months and found the female making several visits to a what appeared to be a recently excavated nest hole in late April. By mid May it was clear that the birds were feeding young and a juvenile was appearing regularly at the nest entrance hole later in the month.
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| Female Great Spotted Woodpecker |
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| Male Great Spotted Woodpecker |
A juvenile was seen leaving the nest on June 2nd and a juvenile was also seen following the male later that day. This is second new breeding species in Limerick in the past two years, following on from successful breeding by Reed Warblers at the Coonagh Nature Reserve in 2018.
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| Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker at Murroe (Gordon Young) |
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| Male Great Spotted Woodpecker |
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