American Three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides dorsalis), Barfoot Park, Chiricahua Mountains, Cochise County

This American Three-toed Woodpecker was found and photographed by Mike Lesnik on 21 April 2017

This is the first record for Cochise County and for southeast Arizona. Within Arizona the species is regular south to the Mogollon Rim and the White Mountains region. In New Mexico it occurs as close to the Chiricahua Mountains as the Pinos Altos Mountains north of Silver City. While generally sedentary American Three-toed Woodpeckers often associate with post fire areas and will move into new mountain ranges after fires. The recent fires in the Chiricahuas likely provided new habitat for a wandering individual.

The white back with irregular bars help to identify this species from the similar Hairy Woodpecker

21 April 2017, photo by Mike Lesnik

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