This woodpecker lives in lowland forests of western and central Africa. Its blackish crown has white specks and broad yellow tips, and it searches large trees for insects.
It has a brown forehead, a blackish crown with white specks and broad yellow tips, a black nape and hindneck, and white lores.
It uses large trees in lowland forest and forest edges. Its diet is mostly insects, especially wood-boring beetles and their larvae, as well as ants and spiders.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.