Wedge billed Woodcreeper (Glyphorynchus spirurus)

[order] Passeriformes | [family] Dendrocolaptidae | [latin] Glyphorynchus spirurus | [UK] Wedge-billed Woodcreeper | [FR] Grimpar bec-en-coin | [DE] Keilschnabel-Baumsteiger | [ES] Trepatroncos Picocuna | [IT] Rampichino becco a cuneo | [NL] Wigsnavel-muisspecht

The Wedge-billed Woodcreeper is typically 14-15 cm long, and weighs 14-16.5 g. It has brown upperparts, with fine streaking on the head sides, a buff supercilium, and a chestnut rump, wings and tail. The throat is buff, and the rest of the underparts are brown spotted dwith buff chevrons, most heavily on the breast. A buff wing bar is obvious from below in flight. The short wedge-shaped bill is quite different in shape from that of other woodcreepers. Young birds are duller with less distinct breast streaking.

Found in the tropical New World from southern Mexico to northern Bolivia, central Brazil and the Guianas. In Suriname the most common Woodcreeper of the interior and sandridge forests.

This common and widespread small woodcreeper is found in lowlands up to 1500 m altitude, although normally below 1100 m, in damp forests, adjacent semi-open woodland and old second growth.

The nest is a cup build in a narrow tree cavity such as a rotting stump or space between buttresses. It is woven out of rootlets and other fine plant material. The nest is placed in a natural cavity or old woodpecker’s nest. It may occasionally nest up to 6 m high in a tree, but is usually much lower, often at or below ground level. It lays two white eggs incubated and brooded for by both parents. The young fledge afer about 17 days.

It feeds on small spiders and insects, sometimes plant matter. It creeps up trunks, pecking and gleaning prey from the bark and leafs. It has a strong preference for trees with fine flaky bark. This woodcreeper has a lower diversity of insects eaten than the larger species. It is seen alone, in pairs, or sometimes as part of a mixed-species feeding flock, often led by antshrikes.

This species has a large range, with an estimated global extent of occurrence of 7,200,000 km2. The global population size has not been quantified, but it is believed to be large as the species is described as ‘frequent’ in at least parts of its range (Stotz et al. 1996). 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.