The Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides tridactylus) is a discreet woodpecker of the boreal taiga with a unique distinguishing feature: three toes instead of the four found on every other Swedish woodpecker. It measures 21–24 cm, about the size of a Great Spotted Woodpecker but slightly slimmer and more streamlined, with black-and-white plumage giving a fairly dark overall impression, a clear white stripe running down the centre of the back, finely dark-streaked flanks and a distinctive black-and-white facial pattern. The male carries a bright yellow crown, while the female's crown is black-and-white and grey-streaked without yellow; the species entirely lacks the red undertail or nape colouring seen in several other woodpeckers.
Its drumming is calmer and more drawn-out than the Great Spotted Woodpecker's, lasting one to two seconds at an even tempo without the accelerating, dying-away ending, while its call note is a short, soft, muffled "tjuk" or "kük" easily overlooked in the forest, sometimes joined by a whining "kjiij" during the breeding season. It is strongly tied to mature, old spruce forest rich in dead and dying trees, favouring undisturbed forest with natural disturbance such as burns and windthrow where dead and beetle-infested wood is abundant; in Sweden it occurs mainly in Norrland and along the mountain range, concentrated in Norrbotten, Västerbotten and Jämtland with a more scattered presence in parts of Svealand, and the population is estimated in the low thousands of pairs. Rather than drilling deep into wood like many woodpeckers, it systematically flakes and pecks bark from dead and weakened spruces to reach bark beetles and their larvae, its main food, leaving telltale rings of stripped bark, and it can also ring-bark living spruce to feed on the sap. It excavates a nest cavity in a dead pine or spruce 2–5 metres up, the female laying 3–5 white eggs incubated by both parents for about two weeks, with young fledging after roughly three weeks. As a sedentary resident it can be sought year-round, though it is sensitive to modern forestry because of its dependence on dead wood.
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