Eurasian Three-Toed Woodpecker

Picoides tridactylus (Linnaeus, 1758)

		male female
2015-02-08 Chernaya Uba river, Eastern Kazakhstan. 2014-06-15 Kimasar. Ile Alatau National Park.	© Askar Isabekov © Askar Isabekov

Distribution

Lives in mountain forests of Eastern and South-Eastern Kazakhstan. Please see the detailed distribution in Kazakhstan in the section Subspecies.

Biology

Rare resident. Inhabits the coniferous (spruce, fir, larch or cedar), rarer mixed forests with dead woods; on Altai up to 1700 m, in Tien Shan between 1500 and 2600 m. Breeds in separate pairs, nest is located in tree holes (spruce, larch) at height up to 20 m above ground. Clutch of 3-5 eggs is laid in May. Both parents incubate clutch (male has a brood patch) and feed juveniles which fledge in July (but nest with nestlings recorded 26 August 1937). Three-toed Woodpecker not disperses in foothills, far from the breeding sites.

Subspecies

Picoides tridactylus tridactylus (Linnaeus, 1758) Description. Lighter than tianschanicus. White on mantle is more developed than tianschanicus. Black ‘moustache’, black streaks on breast-flanks and black cross-pattern on belly-flanks are less expressed than tianschanicus; outer tail feathers have more expressed black pattern than in tianschanicus. Distribution. Lives in Tran-Irtysh area near Semipalatinsk, South-West Altai and Saur ridge.

Picoides tridactylus tianschanicus (Buturlin, 1907) Description. Darker than tridactylus. White on mantle is less developed than in tridactylus. Black ‘moustache’, black streaks on breast-flanks and black cross-pattern on belly-flanks are more expressed than tridactylus; outer tail feathers have more expressed white pattern than in tridactylus. Distribution. Lives in Tien Shan and Dzhungar Alatau.

References

"Птицы Казахстана" том 3. "Наука". Алма-Ата, 1970. Э.И.Гаврилов. "Фауна и распространение птиц Казахстана". Алматы, 1999. Gavrilov E. I., Gavrilov A. E. "The Birds of Kazakhstan". Almaty, 2005.