The Checkered Woodpecker's specimen account describes a dark, white-streaked head and red on the male's hind-crown. In 2022 a pair was recorded nesting in a tamarisk and feeding young in Chubut, Argentina.
The 1965 Argentine account describes the male's dark head with white streaks and red on the hind-crown. The back and wings have white marks; the pale underside has dark streaks. The female's head lacks the red and white streaks.
One pair in Chubut moved together through shrubs and caught small arthropods. They nested in a tamarisk branch, and both adults fed the young.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.