The black-cheeked woodpecker (Melanerpes pucherani) is a resident breeding bird from southeastern Mexico south to western Ecuador. This woodpecker occurs in the higher levels of wet forests, semi-open woodland and old second growth. It nests in an unlined hole 6–30 m (20–98 ft) high in a dead tree. The clutch is two to four glossy white eggs, incubated by both sexes. The binomial commemorates the French zoologist Jacques Pucheran.