Streak-headed woodcreeper

The streak-headed woodcreeper (Lepidocolaptes souleyetii) is a passerine bird which breeds in the tropical New World from southern Mexico to northwestern Peru, northern Brazil and Guyana, and also on Trinidad.

Streak-headed woodcreeper
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Furnariidae
Genus: Lepidocolaptes
Species:
L. souleyetii
Binomial name
Lepidocolaptes souleyetii
(Des Murs, 1849)

This woodcreeper is found in lowlands up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) altitude, although normally below 900 m (3,000 ft), in damp light woodland, plantations, gardens, and clearings with trees. It builds a leaf-lined nest 4.5 to 24 m (15 to 79 ft) up in a tree cavity, or sometimes an old woodpecker hole, and lays two white eggs.

The streak-headed woodcreeper is typically 19 cm (7.5 in) long and weighs 28 g (0.99 oz). It has olive brown upperparts with fine streaking on the crown, nape and upper back, a chestnut rump, wings and tail, and heavily streaked olive-brown underparts.[2] The 2.5 cm (0.98 in) long bill is slender and decurved. Young birds are duller with less distinct streaking.

The call is a sharp rolled djeer and the song is a whistled piiiiiiiiir piiiiiiiiir piiiiiiiiir.

The streak-headed woodcreeper is very similar to the spot-crowned woodcreeper (Lepidocolaptes affinis) but is smaller, has a streaked, not spotted crown, and is found at lower altitudes.

The streak-headed woodcreeper feeds on spiders and insects, creeping up trunks and extracting its prey from the bark or mosses. It is normally seen alone or in a pair and unlike spot-crowned, rarely joins mixed-species feeding flocks.[2]

This species' scientific name commemorates Louis François Auguste Souleyet, French zoologist and naval surgeon.[3]

Turrialba, Costa Rica

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Lepidocolaptes souleyetii". 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. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-8014-9600-4.
  3. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 360. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  • Hilty, Steven L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5.

Further reading
  • Skutch, Alexander F. (1969). "Streaked-headed 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. 374–384.

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