The blond-crested woodpecker was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[3] Gmelin based his description on the "yellow-crested woodpecker" from Brazil that had been described and illustrated in 1776 by the English naturalist Peter Brown.

In the nominate subspecies, adults of both sexes have a pale creamy buff to yellowish white head including the long, pointed crest, chin, and throat.

Their lower neck and underparts are black with a hint of pale barring on the flanks and undertail coverts.

Subspecies C. f. intercedens is whitish to buff-white on the head and lower back, and sometimes has some rufous in the flight feathers.

The nominate subspecies is found southeast of it, from southern Bahia to Rio Grande do Sul and into eastern Paraguay and Argentina's Misiones Province.

It generally forages at the forest's middle level to its canopy but also on the ground, capturing insects by gleaning, probing, pecking, and hammering.

[9] The blond-crested woodpecker breeds between April and June in eastern Brazil and between October and November in Argentina.