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-wedged piculet are brown above, with pale edgings to the secondaries and tertiaries, and the tail is brown, the two central feathers being white, and there being a white patch on the outer edge near the tip. The throat, breast and belly are white with black scaling, the flanks and lower belly being less scaled than elsewhere. The iris is brown, the beak blackish and the legs grey. The juvenile is similar to the female but has a paler crown. The native range of the white-wedged piculet in tropical South America includes parts of Bolivia, southern Brazil and northern Paraguay; it is