Three-toed woodpecker
Picoides tridactylus
Identification Tips:
- 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.