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A black-backed woodpecker searches for insects in a burned Douglas fir in Glacier National Park. (Chris Peterson/Hungry Horse News)

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Black-backed woodpecker suits its name
October 27, 2022 midnight

Black-backed woodpecker suits its name

Picus is Latin for woodpecker, from a legend in which the enchantress Circe turned Picus, the son of Saturn, into a woodpecker; -oides is Greek for “resembling,” so Picoides means “woodpecker-like.”