All species › Passerines › Ovenbirds and woodcreepers › Cocoa Woodcreeper
Position in the tree Birds Aves › Birds with a flexible palate Neognathae › All other modern birds Neoaves › Landbirds Telluraves › Falcons, parrots and passerines Australaves › Falcons and passerines Eufalconimorphae › Parrots and passerines Psittacopasserae
Cocoa Woodcreeper | Xiphorhynchus susurrans
Cocoamuisspecht | Trepatroncos cacao
The Cocoa Woodcreeper is a medium-sized, streaked woodcreeper of the humid lowlands of southern Central America. It is one of the commonest woodcreepers in its range and is most noticeable for its loud, laughing song. It also occurs in cacao plantations, secondary forest and forest edges.
Voice
A loud, rapid series of clear notes that swells and then fades, like a laugh; often heard throughout the day. Also a sharp, descending call.
Recording: Johan Chaves — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
22–24 cm. Bill fairly long and slightly curved, with a dark upper mandible and paler lower mandible. Throat plain buff. Head, neck and breast brown with buff teardrop-shaped streaks; back warm brown with few or no streaks. Wings and tail rufous. Male and female are alike.
Confusion species
Black-striped Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus lachrymosus has a conspicuously black-and-buff striped back and much more contrasting markings. Ivory-billed Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus flavigaster has a pale, ivory-coloured bill and lives mainly further north. Spotted Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus erythropygius has round spots instead of streaks and lives higher in the mountains. Streak-headed Woodcreeper Lepidocolaptes souleyetii is smaller and has a thin, curved, pale bill.
Habitat
Humid lowland and foothill forest, mature and young secondary forest, forest edges, gallery forest and shaded plantations such as cacao. It forages mainly on trunks and branches in the lower and middle levels for insects and other invertebrates; it sometimes follows army-ant swarms. It nests in a tree cavity.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Caribbean slope of Honduras (and locally extreme eastern Guatemala) and Nicaragua, through Costa Rica (also the southern Pacific slope) to Panama. Outside the guide area in northern Colombia, Venezuela and on Trinidad and Tobago.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Common at La Selva in Costa Rica and along Pipeline Road (Camino del Oleoducto) in Panama. Follow the laughing song and check trunks at eye level.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Common and tolerant of some disturbance to the forest.
Scientific name
Xiphorhynchus susurrans | (Jardine, 1847)
Jardine described the species in 1847 as Dendrocolaptes susurrans; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Xiphorhynchus was introduced in 1827 by Swainson. Xiphorhynchus is Greek, from xiphos 'sword' and rhunkhos 'bill', after the long, straight bill. susurrans is Latin for 'whispering', from susurrare; an odd name for this noisy bird. The specimen the first description was based on came from Tobago.