This woodpecker is endemic to coastal South Africa. Its green back and wings have yellow marks, while the whitish underside has large black spots. It searches for ants in forest and dense scrub.
The dark-green back, wings and rump have yellow spots or streaks; the yellowish-olive tail has yellow bars. The whitish underside is heavily spotted, with an incipient gorget in eastern populations. Females have an olive crown with fine yellow spots.
It uses forests and dense woody habitats including coastal bush, thornveld, riverine woodland, Euphorbia thickets and plantations. It is a solitary hole-nester and feeds mainly on ants, ant larvae, wood-boring beetles and their larvae.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.