With a wingspan of over a meter, the banana-beak pickpecker (Hemignathoides magnus) is the largest of the North America dirostrids  This species, with its wide wings and blocky, almost kingfisher-like appearance, favors the cold, old-growth forests of northern North America.  Here, the trees are large and thinly spaced, and there is little undergrown to impede the movement of this large bird as it searches for grubs below the bark.

    Like most pick-peckers, the bananabeak has no call, but these birds can easily be identified by the noise of their hammering.