Great Rufous Woodcreeper

Overview

The great rufous woodcreeper (Xiphocolaptes major) is a species of ovenbird found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay. It is the largest member of its subfamily and is currently assessed as Least Concern by the IUCN.

Identification

• Length of 27 to 34 cm with a heavy body and a long, heavy, somewhat decurved bill.
• Plumage is predominantly bright rufous-cinnamon, with darker crowns and chestnut tails; flight feathers are reddish brown with dusky tips on the primaries.
• Dark brown, rich red-brown, or crimson iris, with pale horn-colored to horn-white bill and dark grayish olive or bluish gray legs.
• Song consists of a slightly descending series of 5-8 double-noted whistles with a loud, ringing quality.

Habitat

Inhabits dry woodland, semi-deciduous woodland, gallery forest, Gran Chaco woodland, scrubby forest, cerrado, and wooded savanna. It favors the forest interior but occasionally occurs at the edges, mostly below 1,500 m elevation though reaching up to 1,800 m.

Diet

The diet consists mostly of insects, with smaller amounts of other arthropods and small vertebrates. It forages from the ground to the subcanopy, turning over leaf litter and hitching along trunks and branches to probe and glean for prey.

Did you know?

Despite being the largest member of its subfamily, it is not the heaviest. The species does not follow army ant swarms or join mixed-species feeding flocks.