Plain-breasted piculet endemic to South America on the eastern side of the Andes where it lives in the western part of the Amazon basin. The species is present in southern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, Peru and western Brazil at altitudes of up to . It is found in open parts of humid lowland forests, flooded forests, riverside corridors, swamps, thickets and groves, and logged areas with secondary growth and wooded pastures. It often occurs in areas of young "Cecropia" and "Mimosa" trees. The plain-breasted piculet is usually seen by itself or in pairs, but it will occasionally joins small flocks of birds of
White-browed piculet a ring of bare pinkish or reddish skin. Males have a small golden-yellow patch on the forehead which females lack. Juveniles are duller in colour than adults, greener above and greyer beneath. The beak is grey, the iris is red and the legs are yellow or orange, the feet having just three toes, (four being the norm in the woodpecker family). In southern Myanmar and southeastern Thailand, where their ranges overlap, the white-browed piculet can be confused with the very similar rufous piculet ("Sasia abnormis"), but differs in the white streak above the eye and the darker beak. The white-browed