Medium-sized mostly black woodpecker with white spots in the wings and barred flanks. Males have a yellow crown patch.
Black-and-white woodpecker with barred flanks and a barred black-and-white patch down the back. The amount of barring on the back varies regionally. Rocky Mountain birds have less barring.
Excavates nest holes in dead trees, usually conifers. As young approach fledging, they chip noisily from the entrance of the cavity. Juveniles of both sexes have a small yellow crown patch.
Mostly black woodpecker with variable barring on the back. Adult males have a yellow crown patch.
Found in evergreen forests often where disturbances such as fire or disease outbreaks have increased the numbers of standing dead trees and insects.
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A small woodpecker with a stout body and a fairly short but strong, chisel-like bill.
Larger than a Downy Woodpecker, smaller than a Hairy Woodpecker.
robin-sizedThree subspecies are named: dorsalis in the Rocky Mountains, bacatus in the Great Lakes eastward, and fasciatus from Alaska and western Canada southward into Idaho and Oregon. These subspecies differ mostly in the plumage of the back. Eastern bacatus has a very dark back with narrow pale bars that can be difficult to see at a distance, Rocky Mountain dorsalis has a back that appears almost white, and the back of northwestern fasciatus varies from dark to whitish.
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