The Eurasian three-toed woodpecker (''Picoides tridactylus'') is a medium-sized woodpecker that is found from northern Europe across northern Asia to Japan.

Taxonomy

The Eurasian three-toed woodpecker was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

''. He coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Picus tridactylus''. The type locality is Sweden. The specific epithet is from the Ancient Greek ''tridaktulos'' meaning "three-toed" (''tri-'' is "three-" and ''daktulos'' is toe). The species is now placed in the genus ''

Picoides ''Picoides'' is a genus of woodpeckers (family Picidae) that are native to Eurasia and North America, commonly known as three-toed woodpeckers. Taxonomy The genus ''Picoides'' was introduced by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépè ...

'' that was introduced by the French naturalist

Bernard Germain de Lacépède Bernard-Germain-Étienne de La Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède or La Cépède (; 26 December 17566 October 1825) was a French naturalist and an active freemason. He is known for his contribution to the Comte de Buffon's great work, the ...

in 1799. The Eurasian three-toed woodpecker was formerly considered conspecific with the

American three-toed woodpecker The American three-toed woodpecker (''Picoides dorsalis'') is a medium-sized woodpecker (family Picidae), which is native to North America. Description This woodpecker has a length of , a wingspan of , and an average weight of ; its maximum li ...

(''Picoides dorsalis''). Eight

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognised: * ''P. t. tridactylus'' (Linnaeus, 1758) – northern Europe to the southern Ural Mountains and to south-eastern Siberia and north-eastern China * ''P. t. alpinus'' Brehm, CL, 1831 – central and south-eastern Europe to western Ukraine and Romania * ''P. t. crissoleucus'' (

Reichenbach Reichenbach may refer to: Places Austria * Reichenbach (Litschau), a part of Litschau * Reichenbach (Rappottenstein), a part of Rappottenstein Germany * Reichenbach (Oberlausitz), in Niederschlesischer Oberlausitzkreis district, Saxony * Rei ...

, 1854) – northern Ural Mountains to eastern Siberia * ''P. t. albidior''

Stejneger Leonhard Hess Stejneger (30 October 1851 – 28 February 1943) was a Norwegian-born American ornithologist, herpetologist and zoologist. Stejneger specialized in vertebrate natural history studies. He gained his greatest reputation with reptiles ...

, 1885 – eastern Siberia and Kamchatka Peninsula * ''P. t. tianschanicus''

Buturlin Buturlin, feminine: Buturlina (russian: Бутурли́н, Бутурлина) is a Russian surname of a Russian noble . Notable people with this surname include: * Alexander Buturlin (1694–1767), a Russian general * Anna Artemevna Buturlina ( ...

, 1907 – eastern Kazakhstan and western China * ''P. t. kurodai'' Yamashina, 1930 – north-eastern China and North Korea * ''P. t. inouyei'' Yamashina, 1943 – Japan ( Hokkaido) * ''P. t. funebris'' Verreaux, J, 1871 – central China The subspecies ''P. t. funebris'' is sometimes treated as a separate species, the dark-bodied woodpecker.

Description

The Eurasian three-toed woodpecker is in length, just a little smaller than the

great spotted woodpecker The great spotted woodpecker (''Dendrocopos major'') is a medium-sized woodpecker with pied black and white plumage and a red patch on the lower belly. Males and young birds also have red markings on the neck or head. This species is found acros ...

. The adult has black and white plumage except for the yellow crown of the male. Neither sex has any red feathers. It has black wings and rump, and white from the throat to the belly; the flanks are white with black bars. The back is white with black bars, and the tail is black with the white outer feathers barred with black. Juveniles of both sexes have a yellow crown. The voice call of the Eurasian three-toed woodpecker is a ''kik'' or ''chik'' The breeding habitat is

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

ous forests across the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

from Norway to Korea. There are also populations in the Alps and the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

. Three-toed woodpeckers nest in a cavity in a dead conifer or sometimes a live tree or pole. The pair excavates a new nest each year. This bird is normally a permanent resident, but northern birds may move south and birds at high elevations may move to lower levels in winter. Three-toed woodpeckers forage on conifers in search of wood-boring beetle larvae or other insects. They may also eat fruit and tree sap. These birds often move into areas with large numbers of insect-infested trees, often following a forest fire or flooding.

Notes

References

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