Black-backed three-toed woodpecker
Picoides arcticus
L 8″
Habitat: The conifer forests of the north are preferred, but this three-toed woodpecker is not abundant even in its favorite habitat. Forest types include mixed conifer, lodgepole pine, white fir, subalpine fir, tamarack swamps, boreal spruce-balsam fir, Douglas-fir, and mixed hardwood-conifer.
Nest: This species usually excavates its cavities in snags or live trees with dead heartwood, especially in areas that have been burned or logged (Bent 1939). Nests are usually in spruce, balsam fir, pines, or Douglas-fir, although maple, birch, and cedar have been used.
Food: The food of this species is similar to that of the northern three-toed woodpecker. Beal (1911) found 75 percent of the food to be woodboring beetle larvae, mainly long-horned beetles and metallic woodboring beetles. Weevils and other beetles, spiders, and ants are eaten along with some wild fruit, mast, and cambium. Beal estimated that each three-toed woodpecker annually consumed 13,675 woodboring beetle larvae.
Northern three-toed woodpecker
Picoides tridactylus
L 7½″