Hairy Woodpecker
(Picoides villosus)

Overview

Summary

© Ted Krug
For additional photos and vocalizations, visit Dendroica. (Link opens in a new window.)

The Hairy Woodpecker is a common and widespread year-round inhabitant of Canadian forests. The Christmas Bird Count and the Breeding Bird Survey both suggest that abundance of Hairy Woodpecker has increased by about 100% in Canada since 1970. There appear to be few immediate threats to this species in Canada. This species has been identified as a priority for conservation and/or stewardship in one or more Bird Conservation Region Strategies in Canada.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe
• Breeding Bird Survey (BBS): Relative Abundance and Breeding Distribution (1993-2012)

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation of world population

Conservation and management

Significant threats appear to be few for this widespread and variable species (Jackson et al. 2002). Forest fragmentation may affect woodpeckers in parts of the species' range (Jackson et al. 2002), but such decreases are not evident in Canada.

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Jackson, J.A., H.R. Ouellet and B.T. Jackson. 2002. Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Jackson, J.A., H.R. Ouellet and B.T. Jackson. 2002. Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. (Link)