WESTERN BIRDS Woodpecker 



GENUS PICOIDES : ARCTIC THREE- 

 TOED WOODPECKER. 



Arctic Three-Toed Woodpecker: Picoides drcticus. 

 FAMILY— WOODPECKERS. 



Woodpeckers of this group are of interest because 

 they differ from all the others in having only three 

 toes, two of which point forward, and also in lacking 

 red in their plumage. This brilliant color which usually 

 adorns some portion of a male Woodpecker's head is 

 replaced in this genus by a patch of yellow on crown. 



It is about nine and one-half inches long and is black 

 above, save for small white wing spots and white outer 

 tail feathers; the under parts are white with black bar- 

 rings on sides, and a broad white band runs from bill 

 below the eye and down the neck. The female lacks 

 the yellow patch. 



They are found in northern North America, both east 

 and west, extending south to the Sierra Nevada of Cali- 

 fornia and mountains of Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, South 

 Dakota (Black Hills), Minnesota, Michigan, northern 

 New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine; 

 casual in winter to Nebraska, Illinois, Ohio, Massachu- 

 setts, and Connecticut. 



These little black-backed Woodpeckers are dwellers 

 of the high tree tops, being especially fond of pine, spruce, 

 fir, and tamarack forests, where their restless, active 

 ways make them hard to watch, or approach. In its cry, 

 which is a loud shrill "chirk," and in its movements, it 

 is said to resemble the Red-cockaded Woodpecker; while 

 in its manner of persistent drumming, which can be heard 

 half a mile away, it has been compared by Bendire to 

 the Hairy member of the family. 



Coues calls this bird the Black-backed Three-toed 



17 



