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-barred piculet and heavily degraded former forest. The white-barred piculet was first described in 1825 by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck. It was given the name "Picumnus cirratus", the specific name meaning "curly headed", "cirrus" being Latin for a ringlet or curl. Molecular studies show that it is the sister species to "P. temminckii" and also closely related to "P. dorbignyanus", and at different times these species have been treated as synonymous. Six subspecies are recognised; "P. c. confusus" found in southwestern Guyana, northern Brazil and French Guiana; the Marajo piculet, "P. c. macconnelli" found in the eastern Amazon region of