Planalto Woodcreeper

Overview

The Dendrocolaptes platyrostris, or planalto woodcreeper, is a sub-oscine passerine bird in the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is a year-round resident found across parts of South America, including Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Identification

• A slim bird with a long tail and a medium-length straight black bill, measuring 25 to 27 cm in length.
• Adults feature a dusky face with buffy streaks, a black crown with bold buff streaks, and an olive-brown back; wings and tail are dull chestnut with dusky tips.
• The underside displays a whitish throat, an olive-brown breast with strong whitish buff streaks, and a buffy brown belly with thin blackish bars.
• Vocalizations include shrill 'whik', 'week', or 'chree' notes for the nominate subspecies and 'yourit' or 'urit' notes for the intermedius subspecies, accompanied by rattling and grunting calls.

Habitat

This species inhabits a variety of wooded landscapes, favouring the interior of primary forest but also occurring at edges and in mature secondary forest. The nominate subspecies prefers humid lowland and montane forests, whereas D. p. intermedius occupies drier habitats such as deciduous woodland, palm swamps, and gallery forest in caatinga and cerrado.

Diet

The planalto woodcreeper feeds primarily on arthropods, supplemented by small vertebrates like frogs and a small amount of vegetable matter. It forages by sallying from perches or gleaning from foliage and bark, often following army ant swarms or joining mixed-species feeding flocks.

Did you know?

The species is considered only moderately sensitive to human disturbance, which may explain its continued presence at many somewhat degraded sites despite its preference for primary forest interiors.