Black-backed Woodpecker Identification Guide

Key Field Marks

• Medium-sized, stocky woodpecker, about 9–9.75 inches long, with a large head and long, pale, chisel-like bill.
• Solid, glossy black back with no white barring — this is the single best mark separating it from all other North American woodpeckers.
• White underparts with bold black barring along the flanks.
• Black wings show white spotting/barring only on the flight feathers, not the back.
• Adult male has a small yellow crown patch; females lack yellow and show a plain black crown.
• Three toes on each foot (missing the hind toe), shared only with American Three-toed Woodpecker.
• Face is plain black-and-white with a narrow white mustache stripe and white line below the eye.

Similar Species

• American Three-toed Woodpecker: back is barred or ladder-patterned with white, not solid black; ranges broadly overlap in boreal and montane forest.
• Hairy Woodpecker: has a solid white back stripe, and the male shows a red nape patch rather than a yellow crown.
• Downy Woodpecker: much smaller, also white-backed, with a short bill.

Habitat & Behavior

• A fire and disturbance specialist — most reliably found in recently burned coniferous forest (1–8 years post-fire) and areas with bark-beetle outbreaks.
• Also uses mature spruce, fir, and pine forest with standing dead and dying trees.
• Forages by flaking off large slabs of loose bark from dead trees to expose wood-boring beetle larvae, leaving distinctive patches of bare, pale wood on trunks.
• Generally unafraid of humans and easiest to find by searching recent burns.

Range & Season

• Resident year-round across the boreal forest of Canada and Alaska, and in mountain conifer forests of the western U.S. (Sierra Nevada, Cascades, Rockies).
• A small, disjunct population also occurs in spruce-fir forest and bogs of the northeastern U.S. (northern New England, Adirondacks).
• Largely non-migratory but can wander irregularly, especially into newly burned areas far from typical range.

Voice

• A sharp, single-note "pik" call, lower and flatter than the calls of Hairy or Three-toed Woodpeckers.
• Drums in a rapid, even roll used for communication and territory defense.