Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a whitish forehead, a red crown, and a yellow-gold nape and hindneck.

Their underparts are mostly gray-brown to brownish-buff with a strong olive-yellow wash and a yellowish orange patch on the central belly.

Their bill is longish and black, their iris is reddish to orange-brown, the bare skin around the eye blackish, and the legs green-gray.

[4] The nominate subspecies of golden-cheeked woodpecker is found in western Mexico between Sinaloa and Nayarit.

M. c. flavinuchus is found from Jalisco in west central Mexico south along the coast to Oaxaca and east to Puebla.

[4] The golden-cheeked woodpecker feeds both on insects like ants and adult and larval beetles, and also on fruits and seeds.

It forages on trees from their middle to upper levels, singly or in pairs, and gleans, probes, and pecks for its food.