Spix's Woodcreeper

Overview

Spix's woodcreeper (Xiphorhynchus spixii) is a medium-sized bird in the ovenbird family Furnariidae, endemic to the lower Amazon Basin of northeastern Brazil. It is assessed as a species of Least Concern by the IUCN, though its population is believed to be decreasing.

Identification

• Length 18.5 to 21 cm with a longish, slim, slightly decurved bill; legs and feet are bluish to gray.
• Dusky brown face with narrow buff streaks, a pale supercilium, and dark brown irises.
• Crown and nape are blackish brown with small buff teardrop spots; back and wing coverts are olive-brown with buff teardrop spots edged in blackish.
• Flight feathers, rump, and tail are dark cinnamon to rufous-chestnut; underparts are dull olive-brown with longish dusky-edged buff streaks.
• Song is a very high, very fast trill that descends at the beginning and is level at the end, transcribed as "twe-tee-ti-ti-ti-…-ti-ti-it, wheu".

Habitat

Found in the lower Amazon Basin of northeastern Brazil, occurring south of the Amazon from the Rio Tapajós east to the northern Rio Maranhão and western Rio Tocantins. It mostly inhabits humid evergreen forest, primarily terra firme but also várzea, favouring the interior of primary forest but sometimes occurring in secondary forest or at forest edges between sea level and 500 m.

Diet

The diet consists mostly of arthropods. Single birds and pairs join mixed-species foraging flocks, hitching up and along trunks and branches to capture prey by pecking into bark crevices, clusters of dead leaves, epiphytes, and dead wood. When following army ant swarms, they sometimes catch prey by sallies from a perch.

Did you know?

The species' common name and specific epithet commemorate the German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix (1782-1826). Its nests, which are few in number, are located in tree cavities and lined with wood chips, with clutches typically consisting of two eggs.