A black comma extends from the side of the neck to the upper breast. The chin and throat are white. The lower neck, sides of mantle, rump, and uppertail coverts are black. The back is almost entirely white. The upper coverts are black with large white spots.
Flight feathers have white barring.
The tail is centrally black with white outer tail feathers. In this region, the Hairy is found strictly in mature pine forests and strongly prefers recently burned areas. A fairly numerous and widespread species, there are 14 recognized races of Hairy Woodpecker in North America. These are distinguished by size color of pale areas amount of white on wing Confusion with Downy Woodpeckers. The range of Hairy and Downy woodpeckers overlaps across North America.