Spot-crowned woodcreeper

The spot-crowned woodcreeper (Lepidocolaptes affinis), is a passerine bird which breeds in the tropical New World from central Mexico in the east, the Sierra Madre Orientals, to northern Panama.

Savegre Lodge - Costa Rica

Spot-crowned woodcreeper
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Furnariidae
Genus: Lepidocolaptes
Species:
L. affinis
Binomial name
Lepidocolaptes affinis
(Lafresnaye, 1839)

Description

The spot-crowned woodcreeper is typically 21.5 cm (8.5 in) long, and weighs 35 g (1.2 oz). It has a spotted crown, olive brown upperparts with fine streaking on the upper back, a chestnut rump, wings and tail, and heavily streaked olive-brown underparts. The bill is slender and decurved. Young birds are duller with less distinct streaking and crown spots. The call is a squeaky deeik and the song is a trill and rattle deeeeeeah hihihihihi. [2]

The spot-crowned woodcreeper is very similar to streak-headed woodcreeper, Lepidocolaptes souleyetii, but is larger, has a spotted crown, and is the only woodcreeper found at high altitudes.

Distribution and habitat

This woodcreeper is found in mountains from 1000 m to the timberline in mossy, epiphyte-laden forest and adjacent semi-open woodland and clearings.[2]

Behaviour

It builds a leaf-lined nest 0.6 to 8 m (2 ft 0 in to 26 ft 3 in) up in a tree cavity or old woodpecker or barbet hole, and lays two white eggs.[2]

It feeds on spiders and insects, creeping up trunks and extracting its prey from the bark or mosses. It will join mixed-species feeding flocks.[2]

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Lepidocolaptes affinis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Stiles, F. Gary; Skutch, Alexander F. (1989). A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. pp. 265–266. ISBN 978-0-8014-9600-4.

Further reading
  • Skutch, Alexander F. (1969). "Spotted-crowned woodcreeper" (PDF). Life Histories of Central American Birds III: Families Cotingidae, Pipridae, Formicariidae, Furnariidae, Dendrocolaptidae, and Picidae. Pacific Coast Avifauna, Number 35. Berkeley, California: Cooper Ornithological Society. pp. 385–391.
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