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) [XC488404]
by Ron Overholtz from Unorganized South Nipissing District, Nipissing District, Ontario, Canada (drumming)
Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) [XC322421]
by Frank Lambert from Graveyard Meadows, Madera County, California, United States (alarm call, call)