The crown is green, and there is a white streak above and immediately behind the eye, the latter being surrounded by a ring of bare pinkish or reddish skin.

The beak is grey, the iris is red and the legs are yellow or orange, the feet having just three toes,[2] (four being the norm in the woodpecker family).

Its range extends from northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh through southern China to Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.

[1] Its home is dense wet or dry forest with plenty of vines and bamboo, scrub and swampy woodlands.

It often forages in pairs or may join small flocks of mixed species, sometimes descending to the ground, where it may hop for short distances.