Dot-fronted Woodpecker

The dot-fronted woodpecker is about 16 cm (6.3 in) long and weighs 30 to 40 g (1.1 to 1.4 oz). Males and females have the same plumage except on their heads. Males have an olive to gray-brown forehead ("front") with many white spots and are red from the crown to the nape with dark gray feather bases showing through. The female is olive-brown from forehead to nape with white spots throughout. Adults of both sexes have a mostly olive-brown face with a thin white supercilium and a thin white "moustache". Their upperparts are mostly yellowish olive with golden feather tips and pale bars and streaks. Their flight feathers are brown with wide yellow-green edges and pale bars on the inner webs. Their tail is dark brown with a yellow wash and thin whitish bars on the feathers. Their underparts are olive-gray with narrow whitish bars. The iris is dark brown, the longish beak blackish with a paler mandible, and the legs are dark gray. Juveniles are duller and grayer than adults and both sexes have some red on the crown, the male more than the female.

The dot-fronted woodpecker is found on the east side of the Andes from Bolivia's Cochabamba and Santa Cruz departments south to Tucumán Province in Argentina. It inhabits dry montane woodland, humid forest, and the transition zone between them. In elevation it ranges as high as 2,000 m (6,600 ft) but generally occurs lower.

The dot-fronted woodpecker typically forages near the ground on tree trunks and small branches. Its diet has not been described.