Three-toed woodpecker Picoides tridactylus

Identification Tips:

• Length: 7.5 inches
• Medium-sized black and white woodpecker
• Black head
• Narrow postocular stripe widens towards rear of head and extends down neck
• White moustachial stripe
• White throat, breast, and belly
• White flanks with black barring
• White back barred with black (in most races)
• Black wings marked with white spots on flight feathers
• Black rump
• Black tail with white outer tail feathers that are barred inwardly with black
• Rocky Mountain subspecies (P. t. dorsalis) has an entirely white back
• Eastern subspecies (P. t. bacatus) has a dark, heavily barred back
• Western subspecies (P. t. fasciatus) has a whitish, sparsely barred back

Adult male:

• Yellow cap at top of head with fuzzy edges

Similar species:

Since Hairy Woodpeckers can have barred backs in the Maritimes provinces and Rocky Mountain Three-toed Woodpeckers have entirely white backs, it is best to concentrate on the barred flanks, much darker face, and narrow postocular stripe of the Three-toed Woodpecker there. Black-backed Woodpecker is distinguished from the Three-toed Woodpecker by the entirely black back, postocular stripe which does not extend down neck, and wholly white outer tail feathers.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.