diagnostics
20-21 cm, 70 g. An attractive, heavily patterned woodpecker of forest and well-developed thickets. Sexes differ in head markings and bill length. Back, wings and rump dark green with dull yellow spotting and streaking. Tail yellowish olive with yellow barring; feather shafts brownish or golden yellow. Underparts whitish and heavily spotted, forming an incipient gorget in eastern populations. Crown and forehead black with crimson speckling. Malar stripe is black with red speckling. Lores and ear coverts white with heavy speckling. Bill entirely black. Adult female resembles male but crown and forehead olive with fine yellow spotting; malar stripe black with white speckling. Juvenile similar to adult with dimorphic head pattern already apparent (Tarboton 2005b).
