The Beautiful Woodpecker occurs in Colombia’s Magdalena Valley. A 2013 regional guide treats it as an endemic of that area and records it in humid forest, secondary growth and forest edges. Males have a red crown and golden-yellow nape.
Males have a buff-yellow forehead, red crown and golden-yellow nape. A broad black mask runs from around the eyes across the cheeks toward the back.
The regional guide lists humid forest, secondary growth and forest edges as habitats.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.