White-barred piculet different sub-populations of this bird on either side of the equator in South America. The northerly population is in Guyana, northwestern French Guiana and northern Brazil. The southern population is in southeastern Brazil, eastern Bolivia, eastern Paraguay and northern Argentina. The white-barred piculet occupies various habitats including wet and dry woodland, forest verges, thickets, gallery forests, wooded savannah, scrub, bamboo clumps, vines, creepers and overgrown parks and gardens at elevations of up to about . It is a resident, sedentary species. The white-barred piculet usually forages singly, but may join small mixed species flocks. It feeds on ants, their larvae
White-wedged piculet are brown above, with pale edgings to the secondaries and tertiaries, and the tail is brown, the two central feathers being white, and there being a white patch on the outer edge near the tip. The throat, breast and belly are white with black scaling, the flanks and lower belly being less scaled than elsewhere. The iris is brown, the beak blackish and the legs grey. The juvenile is similar to the female but has a paler crown. The native range of the white-wedged piculet in tropical South America includes parts of Bolivia, southern Brazil and northern Paraguay; it is