The Robust Woodpecker occurs in eastern central South America (mainly Brazil), where it is found in humid forests and araucaria forests, frequenting disturbed forests only if large trees are present. It is found from lowlands to 1000 m (in hills to 2200 m). Robust Woodpeckers forage at all levels, but never (or rarely) on the ground. They forage singly, in pairs, or in family groups and only rarely join mixed-species flocks.
(Winkler et al. 1995 and references therein; Winkler and Christie 2002 and references therein; del Hoyo et al. 2014 and references therein)
