This woodpecker lives on Caribbean islands and searches for food on tree trunks and branches. A black mark above and behind the eye occurs in most, but not all, subspecies.
Most subspecies have a distinctive black mark above and behind the eye. The source does not describe it as universal across the species.
It forages alone or in pairs along tree trunks and branches, pecking bark or probing bromeliad leaves for insects, spiders, small frogs and lizards; it also eats fruit.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.