It was firstly identified and described by English scholar and ornithologist Henry Baker Tristram in 1879.

It prefers dead trees, where it nests in the hollow trunk and searches the bark for insects.

Historically, Tristram's woodpecker was found on the Japanese island of Tsushima and on the Korean peninsula.

Due to intensive hunting and the request for museum specimens in the Western world between 1898 and 1902, this subspecies almost completely disappeared from that island.

Probably fewer than 50 birds exist in the provinces of Kangwŏn-do and North Hwanghae, in particular in the remaining forests of Rinsan, Phyongsan, Jangphung, Pakyon, and Kaesong around the area of Myŏraksan.