The cream-backed woodpecker is a distinctively-coloured large woodpecker growing to a length of 30 to 34 cm (12 to 13 in). The male has a red hood, consisting of head, chin, neck and crest, with a small patch of black and white beneath the ear-coverts. The female has a black hood and crest, with some red on the ear-coverts, nape and throat, and with a black-bordered white streak running from the beak to the ear-coverts. The body plumage, both upper parts and underparts, are black in both sexes, with a buff or cream-coloured patch on the mantle and back, and a short black tail. The beak is long and ivory-coloured, and the legs are grey.
The cream-backed woodpecker is native to South America. Its range extends from northern Bolivia, through western and central Paraguay, north central Argentina and northern Uruguay to southeastern Brazil. It is a resident species found below about 2,500 m (8,200 ft). It is not a bird of dense forest, preferring open woodland, savannah with clumps of trees, palm groves and farmland.
The cream-backed woodpecker feeds alone, in pairs or in family groups. Its diet mostly consists of wood-boring beetle larvae and it forages at all levels of the canopy as well as on fallen logs and tree stumps. This woodpecker produces a short, kettledrum-like roll of four to seven strikes. It also communicates with a quiet "ahem" and various soft and squeaky chattering calls.
The cream-backed woodpecker is described as uncommon, but it has an extremely large range and no specific threats have been identified, so the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern".
