This large woodpecker has black upperparts and a red crest, rump, and underside. It chisels into wood for beetle larvae.
The upperparts are black, with a red crest, rump, and underside. The sexes differ in head markings.
It hammers low trunks and large branches to find large beetles and wood-boring beetle larvae.
Both adults excavate a nesting cavity in the trunk of a large tree.
The nominate female resembles the male, but its pale-buff cheek band extends broadly down the neck sides to the shoulders.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.