The scaled piculet (Picumnus squamulatus) is a species of bird in subfamily Picumninae of the woodpecker family Picidae.

The scaled piculet was formally described in 1854 by the French ornithologist Frédéric de Lafresnaye under the current binomial name Picumnus squamulatus based on a specimen collected in Colombia.

[6] A study published in 2014 found that the black-dotted piculet, P. nigropunctatus Zimmer and Phelps (1950) was a junior synonym of Picumnus obsoletus Allen, JA (1892).

Adult males of the nominate subspecies P. s. squamulatus have a black cap with red feather tips on the forehead and white ones on the rest of it.

P. s. obsoletus has a yellow-green tinge to the upperparts and has yellowish white underparts with paler and finer "scale" markings and dark streaks in the feather centers.

It forages on thin branches and twigs in dense vegetation or small trees, usually singly or in pairs.

[6] The scaled piculet's breeding season is not well defined, but appears to include October to January in Colombia and April to June (and perhaps to September) in Venezuela.