Their bill is a long ivory yellow chisel, their iris light cream-buff, and their legs greenish gray.

Adult males have a red head with a bushy crest and sometimes a grayish brown spot on the ear coverts.

Juveniles resemble adult females but with a darker bill and are mostly dull black on the side of their head.

[3] The pale-billed woodpecker forages mostly in the forest's mid- to upper levels but will feed on the ground at stumps and fallen logs.

It generally seeks its prey on tree trunks and large limbs, excavating in decayed wood and scaling bark from dead.

[3] The pale-billed woodpecker's breeding season has not been fully defined but appears to vary with latitude.

[1] "This woodpecker requires large trees for foraging, however, and it disappears from areas that are deforested or heavily cut over.

"[3] Populations in Mexico are listed as "subject to special protection" by the Mexican Official Norm NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010.