black-backed woodpecker

noun

: a three-toed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) native to forests of the northern U.S. and Canada that is black above and white below with dark barring on the flanks, a white facial stripe, and in the male a yellow crown

Then we spot it: a black-backed woodpecker, going about its business of dismantling the bark from a dead lodgepole pine, oblivious to the humans watching from below.

—Terry Richard, Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 23 May 2010

On another trail we found two black-backed woodpeckers quietly pecking at the bases of conifers.

—Gerry Rising, Buffalo News, 20 Feb. 2005

Word History

First Known Use

1828, in the meaning defined above

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