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
Ochre-collared piculet found at altitudes of up to . Its habitat is mostly lowland rainforest with bamboos, vines and tangled growth, but it is also found in secondary growth, thickets, tall scrub, parks and gardens. It hybridizes with the white-barred piculet where their ranges overlap. The ochre-collared piculet forages through the undergrowth, including scrambling among vines, slender branches and saplings. Its diet is ants, beetle larvae and other small invertebrates. Its breeding habits have been little studied but it nests in a hole in a tree; one nest in São Paulo State in Brazil was above the ground and a male was