Rufous piculet creepers, bamboos and dead and rotting trees, often near streams. The rufous piculet is an active bird moving singly or in small groups through the lowest storeys of the forest, usually not above from the ground. It forages on trunks and dead branches, on vines, in bushes, among bamboos and in tall grasses. It gleans scrupulously, probing into holes and pulling out insects with its long tongue. It sometimes works its way up a trunk in a crosswise fashion, making little flights so as to turn to face the other way, the several members of a group often working in
White-barred piculet and heavily degraded former forest. The white-barred piculet was first described in 1825 by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck. It was given the name "Picumnus cirratus", the specific name meaning "curly headed", "cirrus" being Latin for a ringlet or curl. Molecular studies show that it is the sister species to "P. temminckii" and also closely related to "P. dorbignyanus", and at different times these species have been treated as synonymous. Six subspecies are recognised; "P. c. confusus" found in southwestern Guyana, northern Brazil and French Guiana; the Marajo piculet, "P. c. macconnelli" found in the eastern Amazon region of