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Spotted Woodcreeper | Xiphorhynchus erythropygius
Gevlekte muisspecht | Trepatroncos manchado
The Spotted Woodcreeper is a medium-sized, olive-brown woodcreeper of foothill and montane forest, with round pale spots on the head and breast instead of streaks. It often forages in mixed flocks in the middle levels. In the guide area it lives from Mexico to Panama.
Voice
A series of drawn-out, descending, rather plaintive whistles, teeeuw teeeuw teeeuw. Also a short, descending call.
Recording: José María Loaiza B. — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
21–24 cm. Bill fairly long, slightly curved and mostly dark, with a paler base to the lower mandible. Body olive-brown; head, neck and breast with small, round to teardrop-shaped buff spots edged dark, giving a spotted rather than streaked look. Throat buff, spotted. Distinct pale eye-ring. Wings and tail rufous. Male and female are alike.
Confusion species
Cocoa Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus susurrans and Ivory-billed Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus flavigaster have streaks rather than spots and live mainly lower down; Ivory-billed also has a pale bill. Black-striped Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus lachrymosus is much more contrastingly striped black and buff. Spot-crowned Woodcreeper Lepidocolaptes affinis is smaller, with a thin, pale, curved bill and spots mainly on the crown.
Habitat
Humid foothill forest, montane and cloud forest and mature secondary forest, locally also lower; mostly in the middle levels. It searches trunks and branches, including moss and epiphytes, for insects and other invertebrates and often joins mixed flocks. 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
In the foothills and mountains of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua to Costa Rica and Panama; in the north of the guide area locally also lower down. Outside the guide area in western Colombia and Ecuador.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Most often seen in mixed flocks in humid foothill and montane forest in Costa Rica and Panama. The plaintive whistles often give it away before it is seen.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Fairly common in humid foothill and montane forest. The classification of this species is under review; the South American populations are sometimes treated as a separate species.
Scientific name
Xiphorhynchus erythropygius | (Sclater, 1860)
Sclater described the species in 1860 as Dendrornis erythropygia; 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. erythropygius is Greek, from eruthros 'red' and pugē 'rump', after the rufous rump and tail. The specimen the first description was based on came from Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.