Buff throated Woodcreeper (Xiphorhynchus guttatus)

[order] Passeriformes | [family] Dendrocolaptidae | [latin] Xiphorhynchus guttatus | [UK] Buff-throated Woodcreeper | [FR] Grimpar des cabosses | [DE] Tropfenstirn-Baumsteiger | [ES] Trepatronco Pegon | [IT] Rampichino gocciolato | [NL] Geelkeel-muisspecht

This woodcreeper is 27-28 cm long, and weighs 64g. The head and neck are buff-streaked dark brown, the upper back is lightly streaked dark brown, and the rest of the upperparts, wings and tail are rufous. The underparts are olive-brown with broad cinnamon streaks on the breast. The bill is long, pale, slightly decurved, and hooked at the tip.

Found from southeast Colombia to the Guyanas, excluding most of the Guiana Shield, and also in the northern Mata Atlantica.

It chiefly inhabits humid lowland forest, although habitat preferences vary geographically, and in some areas it can also be found in semi-deciduous and gallery forests, palm swamps, cerrado woodland, mature mangroves, clearings with scattered trees and plantations. It is most abundant below 900 m, although it occurs in small numbers at high altitudes, locally to 2400 m in Venezuela.

The species builds a bark-lined nest in a, usually low placed, tree hole or hollow stump. Clutch size is 2 eggs.

It feeds primarily on arthropods, but also on small vertebrates, taken by gleaning, pecking or probing into bark crevices, dead leafs, clumps of moss or knotholes. It is a regular associate of mixed-species flocks frequenting the mid-levels and subcanopy. It feeds low in trees, usually alone, but groups will follow columns of army ants.

The global population size has not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population size criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. less than 10,000 mature individuals in conjunction with appropriate decline rates and subpopulation qualifiers) as it is described as ‘fairly common to common’ throughout most of its extensive range. Global population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

Sedentary throughout range.

Title Nesting of the Buff-throated Woodcreeper (Xiphorhynchus guttatus)

Author(s): ALEXANDER F. SKUTCH

Abstract: The Buff-throated Woodcreeper (Xiphorhynchugsu tta..[more]..

Source: The Auk 113(1):236-239, 1996