This small woodpecker lives in humid forest in eastern Colombia, southern Venezuela and northwestern Brazil. It forages from low levels up to the canopy.
It is about 9 cm long, with pale spots on a dark brown cap, brownish-green upperparts and pale yellowish to buff-white underparts barred in dark brown. The male has a yellowish forecrown.
It is mainly recorded in lowland forest up to 300 m, locally to 500 m, and forages from lower levels to the canopy. Diet and breeding are poorly known, so no food or nest type is asserted.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.