Western and central Alaska east through central Canada (north to area west of Great Bear Lake, central Manitoba and northern Ontario) to southern Labrador and Newfoundland, and south, discontinuously in west, to California and western Nevada (Sierra Nevada), Wyoming, south-central Saskatchewan and north-eastern Minnesota, and in east to northern Michigan, south-eastern Ontario, New York and Nova Scotia.
 
Population
Estimated population is 1,300,000 (2010).
Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) [XC408797]
by from Mammoth Lakes, Mono County, California, United States (drumming, calling whilst foraging)
Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) [XC335437]
by from Blackrock Trailhead, Tulare County, California, United States (call)