The juvenile bird has greener upperparts with pale streaks, and its underparts are paler.

[2] The little green woodpecker is found in West Africa, in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Ghana.

[6] Its range would extend east to South Sudan, Uganda, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo if C. cailliautii permista were included in this species.

Its calls are a plaintive huweeeeh, a harsh whee, kewik, three to four teeay notes, and teerweet.

[2] Logging and clearing of forests appears to be causing a population increase because the bird prefers open habitats.