Pale-billed Woodpecker

How to find it

Listen for the double drum, then look for a pair working on dead or decaying trunks and limbs. A quiet wait near the sound often pays off. A guide-naturalist often hears the harsh call or tapping first, then follows the noise until the bird is spotted. Drier areas such as the Nicoya Peninsula make it easier to see, because the canopy is thinner than in wetter forest, while in denser forest watching for it is harder. A birding writer says it is not super common, but it should turn up on a two week birding trip to Costa Rica.

How to recognise it

Size is the first clue, since this is a very large woodpecker. Then look at the head and bill:

Male: red head, bushy crest, and red that continues down the neck.

Female: black head, crest and throat in place of the male's red.

Bill: pale ivory in both sexes.

Both sexes are black above, with white stripes down the neck that nearly meet in a V on the back. Costa Rican sources describe these back stripes as thick and yellowish-white. The belly is pale with black bars. The bird has no facial stripes and a heavier build than a Lineated Woodpecker. With binoculars, a fully red head means Pale-billed.

What it sounds like

Recording: oscar312, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Pairs usually stay together all year and forage side by side, though each bird sleeps in its own separate tree hole at night. They forage mostly in the middle and upper forest, working the upper trunks and main limbs of large trees, but sometimes feed at stumps on the ground. The species has not been seen joining mixed-species feeding flocks.

Birds dig deep into rotting trunks, pulling off big chunks of wood and splinters. Nests are usually 5 to 15 m up in a big trunk, and one pair seen mating in January later had its nest raided by collared aracaris.

Where it lives

A Costa Rican natural history account calls it a lowland resident of both slopes. It is widespread and missing only from high elevations. It uses the middle and upper forest, and also forest edges and semi-open areas. It is common where forest cover is full or partial, but does poorly where forest has been heavily cleared.

In Costa Rica it reaches about 1500 m on the Pacific slope, but only about 1000 m on the Caribbean slope.

When to see it

Pairs in Costa Rica mate between August and December, and lay two eggs in a tree cavity. Mornings are usually the best time to notice woodpeckers in general.

Similar birds

The Lineated Woodpecker looks very similar, but it has a dark bill, while the Pale-billed's is ivory. On a male Pale-billed the red continues down the neck, whereas on a Lineated it sits only above the eye and under the chin. A female Pale-billed lacks the white facial stripe of a female Lineated, and the Pale-billed is larger and sturdier.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican sources list several local names: carpintero picoplata, dos golpes (two knocks, after its double drum), carpintero chiricano and carpintero cabeza roja.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident (R), and the IUCN rates it Least Concern with a very large range.

Photography tips

Foraging birds usually work the upper trunks and main limbs of large trees, so a long lens helps. One photographer with a 500 mm lens found one in dark riverside trees and needed heavy cropping and a high ISO, so expect low light in shady forest.