The Guayaquil Woodpecker (Campephilus gayaquilensis) forms a superspecies with C. guatemalensis and C. melanoleucos. This species is restricted to the western slope of the Andes and adjacent lowlands from southwestern Colombia to northwestern Peru, replacing Crimson-crested to the west of that species' range. Guayaquil Woodpeckers are found to 800 m (to 1500 m in Ecuador and Peru) in humid to dry deciduos forests, at forest edges, in tall second growth, and in mangroves. These woodpeckers are often encountered foraging in pairs for larvae of wood-boring beetles.
(Winkler et al. 1995 and references therein; Winkler and Christie 2002 and references therein; del Hoyo et al. 2014 and references therein)
