Males have an olive-green color above with indistinct, small transverse bars and a few diamond-shaped sub-terminal spots that are a paler olive-yellow.

The female Knysna woodpecker is similar to the male, but the black head is spotted with white and only the occiput is scarlet.

The occipital crest (located at the base of the cranium) is completely bright scarlet in color.

The rest of the sides of its face and neck are yellowish white, thickly mottled with black.

[6] It forages at all levels of the tree canopy, pecking, gleaning and probing in search of prey as it works its way along branches.

[7] It is thinly dispersed across the coastal lowlands of South Africa and extends north into southern KwaZulu-Natal and west to near Bredasdorp, Western Cape.

[1] Habitat shifting and alteration are predicted to occur in the future, affecting more than 90% of the population and causing rapid decline.

A range contraction in KwaZulu-Natal in the 19th century has been attributed to the clearance of coastal bush for sugar-cane farming and township development.