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
Speckle-chested piculet markings. The flanks and the rest of the underparts are barred in black and white. The tail is blackish apart from the central two feathers and a bar near the tip which are white. The front of the crown in males is red while in females it is black. The speckle-chested piculet is endemic to Peru. It has a rather limited range, being only known from the central Huallaga Valley and certain parts of the Utcubamba Valley in the foothills of the eastern Andes in Peru. Its altitudinal range is between about . Its main habitat is primary moist lowland