American Three-toed Woodpecker
Picoides dorsalis

Conservation status | Local populations vary considerably; usually uncommon, but may become locally abundant during insect infestations. Extensive range in remote northern forest could be diminished by effects of climate change. |
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Family | Woodpeckers |
Habitat | Conifer forests. Often closely associated with spruce, also found in pine, fir, tamarack, sometimes mixed with deciduous trees such as aspen or willow. Favors areas with many standing dead trees, as after fire or floods. May concentrate in areas with big infestations of wood-boring insects. |
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Feeding Behavior
Forages on live or dead conifers, especially spruces. Often scales off flakes of bark to get at insects, and may gradually remove all bark from a dead tree. Members of a pair forage together at times, but usually separately while nesting.
Eggs
4, sometimes 3-6. White. Incubation is by both sexes (with male incubating at night and part of day), 12-14 days. Young: Both parents feed nestlings. Young leave nest about 22-26 days after hatching, may remain with parents for another 4-8 weeks. 1 brood per year.
Young
Both parents feed nestlings. Young leave nest about 22-26 days after hatching, may remain with parents for another 4-8 weeks. 1 brood per year.
Diet
Mostly insects. Diet is mainly wood-boring beetle larvae, also moth caterpillars and various other insects. Eats some fruit, and may visit sapsucker diggings to feed on sap.
Nesting
Same pairs may remain together for more than one season. Nest site is cavity in tree, typically dead conifer, sometimes in aspen, in live tree, or in utility pole. Cavity (new one each year, excavated by both sexes) usually 5-15' above ground, sometimes 2-50' up. Adult birds often quite unwary around nest, ignoring nearby observers.
Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
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Migration
Populations in far north and high mountains may move short distance south or downslope in winter. Irregularly may stage southward irruptions in winter, with a few moving well south of breeding range.

- All Seasons - Common
- All Seasons - Uncommon
- Breeding - Common
- Breeding - Uncommon
- Winter - Common
- Winter - Uncommon
- Migration - Common
- Migration - Uncommon
See a fully interactive migration map for over 450 bird species on the Bird Migration Explorer.
Learn moreSongs and Calls
A soft pik, similar to call of Downy Woodpecker.Learn more about this sound collection.
How Climate Change Will Reshape the Range of the American Three-toed Woodpecker
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Climate threats facing the American Three-toed Woodpecker
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.