 It is the largest South American woodpecker and one of the largest woodpeckers in the world.Among the species known to exist, only the non-neotropical members of the genus "Dryocopus" and the great slaty woodpecker ("Mulleripicus pulverulentus") are larger-bodied.With the likely extinction of the ivory-billed and imperial woodpeckers ("Campephilus imperialis"), the Magellanic woodpecker is the largest living species of the genus "Campephilus".