black-backed woodpecker

The black-backed woodpecker was described and illustrated by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1832 from a specimen collected near the source of the Athabasca River on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada. He coined the binomial name Picus arcticus.{{ cite book | last1=Swainson | first1=William | author1-link=William Swainson | last2=Richardson | first2=J. | author2-link=John Richardson (naturalist) | year=1831 | title=Fauna boreali-americana, or, The zoology of the northern parts of British America | volume=Part 2. The Birds | publisher=J. Murray | place=London | page=313 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41549728 }} The title page bears the year 1831 but the volume did not appear until 1832. The specific epithet arcticus is the Latin word for "northern" or "arctic".{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url=https://archive.org/details/helmdictionarysc00jobl_997 | url-access=limited | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=[https://archive.org/details/helmdictionarysc00jobl_997/page/n53 53] }} The

black-backed woodpecker is now placed in the genus Picoides which was erected by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799.{{ cite book | last=Lacépède | first=Bernard Germain de | author-link=Bernard Germain de Lacépède | year=1799 | title=Discours d'ouverture et de clôture du cours d'histoire naturelle | chapter=Tableau des sous-classes, divisions, sous-division, ordres et genres des oiseux | language=French | publisher=Plassan | place=Paris | page=7 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6uhAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA81 }} Page numbering starts at one for each of the three sections.{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | year=2020 | title=Woodpeckers | work=IOC World Bird List Version 10.1 | url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/woodpeckers/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=1 June 2020 }} The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

The plumage of adults is black on the head, back, wings and rump. They are white from the throat to the belly; the flanks are white with black bars. Their tail is black with white outer feathers. There is an element of sexual dimorphism in the plumage, with the adult male possessing a yellow cap. Unlike all other woodpeckers except the related American and Eurasian three-toed woodpeckers, this species has three-toed feet.

Measurements:{{Cite web|title=Black-backed Woodpecker Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology|url=https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-backed_Woodpecker/id|access-date=2020-09-26|website=allaboutbirds.org|language=en}}

• Length: {{convert|9.1|in|cm}}
• Weight: {{convert|2.1|-|3.1|oz|g|abbr=on}}
• Wingspan: {{convert|15.8|-|16.5|in|cm|abbr=on}}

Their breeding range is boreal forest across Canada, Alaska, the Northwestern United States, as well as northern Wisconsin,{{Cite web|url=http://ebird.org/ebird/atlaswi/map/bkbwoo?neg=true&env.minX=-99.18187499999999&env.minY=40.76920887102732&env.maxX=-78.08812499999999&env.maxY=47.78096130825044&zh=true&gp=false&ev=Z&mr=1-12&bmo=1&emo=12&yr=EBIRD_ATL_WI_2015|title=eBird Range Map--Black-backed Woodpecker|last=ebird|website=ebird.org|language=en|access-date=2017-07-10}} the Adirondacks in New York, New England, Minnesota,{{Cite web|url=http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/eco/mcbs/bird_map_list.html|title=Minnesota Breeding Bird Map List: Minnesota DNR|website=dnr.state.mn.us|language=en|access-date=2017-07-10}} and Upper Michigan.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mibirdatlas.org/MichiganBreedingBirdAtlasII/TaxonomicListing.aspx|title=TaxonomicListing|website=mibirdatlas.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-07-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170806221227/http://www.mibirdatlas.org/MichiganBreedingBirdAtlasII/TaxonomicListing.aspx|archive-date=6 August 2017|url-status=dead}} In particular the species is a burnt-forest specialist, feeding on the outbreaks of wood-boring beetles that feed on recently burnt trees.{{cite news |title=Let Forest Fires Burn? What the Black-Backed Woodpecker Knows (Published 2017) |work=The New York Times |date=6 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230526064657/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/06/science/let-forest-fires-burn-what-the-black-backed-woodpecker-knows.html |archive-date=2023-05-26 |url-status=live |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/06/science/let-forest-fires-burn-what-the-black-backed-woodpecker-knows.html |last1=Gillis |first1=Justin }} The most important wood boring beetles taken are in the families Cerambycidae and Buprestidae, along with engraver beetles and the mountain pine beetle. Most food is obtained by pecking, a smaller proportion is obtained by gleaning off branches. Black-backed woodpeckers are generally non-migratory but historically have undertaken intermittent irruptions.

Nest excavation occurs in April and May; a fresh nest is drilled each year into the sapwood of dead trees. Abandoned nests are used by other species of bird to nest in. The female lays three or four eggs, and incubation duties are shared between both parents, although the male alone incubates during the night. Upon hatching the altricial chicks are brooded until the nestling phase. Both parents feed the chicks, which take about 24 days to fledge.

The call note of the black-backed woodpecker is a single, sharp pik, and is lower pitched than the call of the American three-toed woodpecker.

{{Reflist}}

• Dixon, Rita D., and Victoria A. Saab. (2000). Black-backed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/509
• National Geographic's Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Third Edition; Describes call note

{{Wikispecies-inline|Picoides arcticus}}

• [http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i4000id.html Black-backed woodpecker – Picoides arcticus] – USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
• [http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Black-backed_Woodpecker.html Black-backed Woodpecker Species Account] – Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• {{InternetBirdCollection|black-backed-woodpecker-picoides-arcticus|Black-backed woodpecker}}
• {{VIREO|Black-backed+Woodpecker|Black-backed woodpecker}}

{{Commons category|position=left|Picoides arcticus|
Picoides arcticus
(Black-backed woodpecker)}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q1259965}}

black-backed woodpecker

Category:Birds of Canada

Category:Native birds of the Northwestern United States

Category:Native birds of Alaska

Category:Birds of the Sierra Nevada (United States)

Category:Fauna of the Great Lakes region (North America)

Category:Least concern biota of North America

Black-backed woodpecker

black-backed woodpecker

Black-backed woodpecker