Rufous piculet creepers, bamboos and dead and rotting trees, often near streams. The rufous piculet is an active bird moving singly or in small groups through the lowest storeys of the forest, usually not above from the ground. It forages on trunks and dead branches, on vines, in bushes, among bamboos and in tall grasses. It gleans scrupulously, probing into holes and pulling out insects with its long tongue. It sometimes works its way up a trunk in a crosswise fashion, making little flights so as to turn to face the other way, the several members of a group often working in
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