Black-backed Woodpecker

Black-backed Woodpecker
The Black-backed Woodpecker is a robin-sized woodpecker with a solid black back, barred flanks and white below. The male has a yellow crown while the female has a solid black crown. Dead conifers with large areas of peeled bark generally indicate the presence of the uncommon Black-backed Woodpecker. When alarmed, it quickly sidles to the far side of the tree and reappears cautiously. If frightened, the bird flies away, often calling sharply. Its call is a sharp, fast kyik and a scolding rattle. Like the Three-toed Woodpecker, this species has only three toes on each foot.

The Black-backed Woodpecker usually excavates its cavities in snags or live trees with dead heartwood, especially in areas that have been burned or logged. It mostly nests in spruce, balsam fir, pines or Douglas-fir but also in maple, birch, cedar and utility poles. It locates its nest cavity usually less than 15 feet above the ground.

The Black-backed Woodpecker flakes off bark of dead conifers to get at the larvae of wood-boring beetles, which make up about 75 percent of its food. In addittion to beetle larvae, it also eats weevils and other beetles, spiders and ants, along with some wild fruit, mast and cambium.

The Black-backed Woodpecker is a resident from Alaska east across Canada to the northernmost United States and south to the mountains of California, Wyoming and South Dakota in West. It prefers coniferous forests in the boreal zone, especially where burned, logged or swampy.

Black-backed Woodpecker Range Map