Black-dotted piculet Foraging birds may repeat the song a few times and then fall silent for several minutes. Birds of this species forage in pairs, often widely separated, or alone. They occasionally join mixed-species flocks. They often "hitch sideways along branches," and they peck or drill like woodpeckers in rotting wood and at broken ends of branches. The taxonomy of "Picumnus" is controversial, and this taxon has been considered conspecific with the white-bellied piculet, conspecific with the golden-spangled piculet, and a synonym (incorrect name) of a subspecies of the scaled piculet ("P. squamulatus obsoletus"). Here it is considered a separate species following
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