The Powerful Woodpecker (Campephilus pollens) is distributed in the Andes in South America from Venezuela through Colombia and Ecuador south to central Peru. It is found mainly between 1700 and 2600 m, although it also occurs outside this range. It is associated with mature montane forest, humid and wet forest, cloud forest, and forest borders, but can also be found in secondary forest, open forest, and forest edge. These birds are often encountered in pairs, feeding mainly on trunks and large limbs at all levels.
(Winkler et al. 1995 and references therein; Winkler and Christie 2002 and references therein; del Hoyo et al. 2014 and references therein)
