Three-toed Woodpecker

 The three-toed woodpecker is a woodpecker of the north.In fact their range extends further north than any other woodpecker. The American three-toed woodpeckers range extends through the boreal forests of Canada and down into the Rocky Mountains. The Eurasian three-toed woodpecker's range extends through out northern Europe and Asia. The American and Eurasian version both look similar but differ in their DNA. The three-toed woodpecker gets its common name because it is one of only a few species of woodpeckers that have only 3 toes, most species have 4. The black-backed woodpecker also has only three toes. it is found in similar habitats, although its range does not extend quite as far north. The three-toed and black-backed woodpeckers look very similar except that the three-toed woodpecker has white barring on its back while the black-backed has a plain black back, as its name would suggest.

Three-toed Woodpecker

 The three-toed woodpecker are found in the boreal forests of North America, Europe and Asia. At one time they were considered one species but in 2003 the species was split into the American three-toed and Eurasian three-toad. The three-toed woodpecker breeds farther north then any other species of woodpecker. The American version is found through out Canada, Alaska, and the Rocky Mountains. Typically they stay on their territory year round foraging for the larva of bark and wood boring beetles. Unlike most other species of woodpeckers they find their prey by pealing the bark off of trees instead of boring holes into them.

The three-toed woodpecker gets its name because it is one of the only woodpecker species that has three toes on each foot instead of four. Other then the two varieties of three-toed only the black-backed woodpecker has three toes. The black-backed are also found in boreal forests, although they do not breed quite as far north. The black-backed is very similar in appearance to three-toed except as its name would suggest it has a black back where the three-toed woodpecker's back is mottled black and white. The top photo in the post is a three-toed where the second is a black back. As you can see they look very similar. These are both males which you can tell by the yellow crown on the top of their heads. The female three-toed woodpecker has a mottled black and white crown where the top of the female black-back's head is all black.

Three-toed Woodpecker

 The three-toed woodpeckers range further north then any other woodpecker in the world. At one time there was only one species of three-toed woodpecker but thanks to DNA testing they were split into the American three-toed woodpecker and the Eurasian three-toed woodpecker. The Eurasian three-toed is found across Northern Europe and Russia. The American three-toed is found in Alaska, Canada and parts of the northern United States. These photos were taken in the Sax Zim Bog in northern Minnesota.

 Three-toed woodpeckers are usually permanent residents with in their range, however some three-toed may migrate during the winter if food is scarce. They eat the larvae of different wood-boring and bark beetles. Unlike many other woodpeckers they do not usually bore into the wood in search of prey. Instead they use their beak to pry and scrape the outside bark from the tree leaving the insects beneath exposed. They then use their long and agile tongue to suck up the larvae. Three-toed woodpeckers can be confused with the black-back woodpecker, another three toed woodpecker found with in much of the same range, however the black-back has a completely black back where the three-toed has white speckles on black.

Three-toed woodpeckers at the Sax Zim Bog

Last weekend I decided to make another trip up to the Sax Zim Bog area in northeast Minnesota to try and get some more shots of winter specialties before the head back north during the spring migration. The weather on Saturday was cold but clear and I had a pretty good day of birding. The first thing that I did when I arrived in the Sax Zim area was to check for the northern hawk owl that had been hanging around on highway 7. Unfortunately he was no where to be found that day. So I decided to go check Admiral and McDavitt for black backed and three toed woodpeckers.
I did not find any of the black-backed woodpeckers that day which is strange since black-backs are more common and I spotted quite a few more of them then three-toed when I was up for the festival a couple of weeks earlier.
I did spot this very nice male three-toed up on Admiral just north of Zim.
I spotted him by following a hairy woodpecker who landed on the same tree. I knew the first bird that I was looking at was a hairy but when I saw a second woodpecker and saw it was on a tree that was stripped of bark I was hopeful.
At first he was so high up in the tree that I could not see his gold crown and I thought that it was a female. But after he continued up and got pretty high he stopped and flew down to the base so that I could get some nice pics.

After I left the first woodpecker I decided to head down McDavitt where we had spotted a very photogenic boreal chickadee at the festival. A little ways down the road I noticed some more trees that were stripped of bark so I stopped to take a listen.
In a little ways from the road I found another male three-toed woodpecker.
This one must of found some tasty bugs to eat, if you look closely you can see its tongue reaching behind the bark.
He was not so cooperative. Usually these woodpeckers are so busy peeling bark that they do not pay any attention to the crazy photographers below. This guy though, decided to eat and run.

Sax Zim Winter Birding Festival Woodpeckers

This past weekend I headed up to Meadowlands, MN for the Sax Zim Winter Birding Festival. I was pretty excited because the Sax Zim Bog, in North East Minnesota, is well known, by many birders, for its rare winter migrants. This was the first year of the festival, which was organized by Mike Hendrickson, and it was a huge success. There were over 150 people who registered for the convention from 19 different states, which was twice the number that the organizers expected for the inaugural year. Mike, who I birded with at the Duluth and Two Harbors CBC and is a great bird guild if you ever need someone to take you around northeast Minnesota, did a great job planning and organizing the festival.

The main targets, for many of the birders who venture up to the Sax Zim area, are the winter owl species. I have made quite a few trips up there, over the years, searching for great grey, northern hawk, and boreal owls. Most years there are a few resident owls to find but every 4 or 5 years there is an irruption/invasion and the numbers go up. The best known example of an owl irruption/invasion was in 2004/2005 when over 5000 great gray owls were counted in the state as well as significant numbers of northern hawk and boreal owls. Even when there is not an owl irruption/invasion there are other unique species of birds. This year was not a great owl or winter finch year but it was a very good year for woodpeckers. I have read a lot of reports, on the list servers, about people spotting black-backed and three-toed woodpeckers and I have even made several trips to the Duluth and Two Harbors area to try and get some pics but so far I had not had any luck. All that I had been able to find were downy and hairy woodpeckers.
So I left early Friday morning and pulled into the Sax Zim area around 9am. The skies where clear and blue, which in Minnesota during the winter time usually means that it is pretty cold. Since the festival registration did not begin until 4pm I had about 7 hours to do some birding on my own. So I went and checked out the feeding stations that some of the local residents had set up in order to encourage birds, and thus birders, to visit. Then I headed off to the bog to check out some of the better birding spots that I have found in past years. I took a lot of pictures of many cool birds but the only woodpeckers that I found were downies or hairies.
I was not worried though because I still had a couple of days of birding left and there were still quite a few sightings in the area. The next morning I was on a bus with about 30 people touring the bog in search of cool birds. That morning I got quite a few more pictures but I still had not seen a black-backed or three-toed. In the afternoon our group leaders decided to head out to the Hedbom Logging Road after talking with Kim Eckert who had lead a trip there in the morning and had spotted both types of woodpeckers. When we got out to Hedbom we got off the bus and followed a trail through the snow into the woods, I was really glad that I had decided to change into my Sorels. We went back a little ways looking for trees that had been stripped of their bark. This is the best sign that there are black-backed or three-toed woodpeckers around. After a few minutes we spotted a female black-backed wood pecker in the trees.

I took a couple of pics and then was heartbroken when I found that my CF card was full. I had shot through my whole 8gb card between Friday and Saturday. I deleted a couple of files that I decided that I could do with out so that I could get a couple more pics. When we got back to the bus I exchanged cards and put my spares in my pocket so that I would be ready the next time we saw a woodpecker but it was getting late and so we headed back to the community center for dinner. I decided to turn in early that night because I needed to get up early for my field trip the next morning and my hotel was 45 minutes away. The field trip on Sunday we had even better luck finding northern woodpeckers. First we found this female black back down the road from the main feeding station in the meadowlands. She was really close to the road and did not seem to care that we were there.

The black-backed and three-toed woodpeckers peel the bark off of the trees looking for insects which are good yummy protein. In the picture above you can see her tongue darting under the bark to collect her prey. I was happy because I got to add the black-backed woodpecker to my list but I was still hoping to see a three-toed also. After leaving Blue Spruce Road our filed trip moved back into the bog and our leaders decided to drive down Admiral Road. Mike, and several other residents, had hung suet feeders and parts of deer carcasses on some of the trees along Admiral. There were also quite a few trees that had their bark peeled lining the road. We stopped the bus near a group of these peeled trees and it did not take very long for our guides to locate a male three-toed woodpecker.

It took a while but I finally got both the clouds and woodpecker to cooperate and got a nice pic in descent light. I was very happy because in the 3 days of the festival I saw both of the northern woodpeckers that had eluded me. I also photographed quite a few other birds, 18gb worth, but instead of one really really long post I am going to break it up into a few smaller ones. So if you want to see more from the Sax Zim Winter Birding Festival, including redpolls, grosbeak, jays, chickadees, eagles, owls and more, then come back and visit again during the next few days.