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
Varzea piculet is unlikely to be confused with any other piculet because it is the only species in its range with dark underparts. The varzea piculet is endemic to Brazil in tropical South America where it has a rather limited range. It lives along the Amazon River in a wildlife corridor, in the forest called "várzea forest", a freshwater swamp forest. It ranges from the confluence of the Amazon River with the Rio Negro in a , variable-width corridor downstream for about to the confluence of the Trombetas River from the north. The confluence of the Tapajós River joins here from the