[4] The black-cheeked woodpecker's specific epithet commemorates the French zoologist Jacques Pucheran.

Their lower throat and breast are olive-buff with a gray tinge and the rest of their underparts are buffish white with strong wavy bars and a red spot in the center of the belly; their undertail coverts are yellow-brown.

Juveniles are duller and browner than adults, with more diffuse barring and a smaller and paler red spot on the belly.

[4] The black-cheeked woodpecker is found from Veracruz and Chiapas in southern Mexico south on the Caribbean slope into Costa Rica and from there on both slopes in Panama through western Colombia and western Ecuador slightly into Peru.

[4] The black-cheeked woodpecker feeds on a very wide variety of arthropods including spiders, beetles, ants, and aerial insects.

It also eats much plant material such as fruits, berries, seeds, and catkins, and takes nectar from large flowers in trees.

It excavates a nest hole in a dead trunk or branch, typically between 4 and 30 m (15 and 100 ft) above the ground.

It has a very large range and an estimated population of at least 50,000 mature individuals, though the latter is believed to be decreasing.