[3] The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) has assigned two subspecies to the pale-crested woodpecker, the nominate C. l. lugubris (Malherbe, 1851) and C. l. kerri (Hargitt, 1891).

[2] The Clements taxonomy and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World add a third, C. l. olrogi (Fraga & Dickinson, 2008), by splitting lugubris.

Males of both subspecies have a wide bright red malar area and cheek (and sometimes around the eye); females are barred or scaly brown there instead.

In the nominate subspecies, adults of both sexes have a pale blond to buffish head including the long pointed crest, chin, and throat.

The adult's bill is grayish to horn-colored, their iris dark red to red-brown, and their legs gray.

[9] The nominate subspecies of the pale-crested woodpecker is found in central and eastern Bolivia and the western part of Brazil's Mato Grosso state.

It generally forages at the forest's middle level, and captures its prey by probing, gleaning, and pecking open dead wood and ant tunnels.