Streak-headed Woodcreeper
Encyclopedia
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 on Trinidad
.
This woodcreeper
is found in lowlands up to 1500 m altitude, although normally below 900 m, in damp light woodland, plantations, gardens, and clearings with trees. It builds a leaf-lined nest 4.5 to 24 m up in a tree cavity, or sometimes an old woodpecker
hole, and lays two white eggs.
The Streak-headed Woodcreeper is typically 19 cm long, and weighs 28 g. 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. The 2.5 cm 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.
Streak-headed Woodcreeper is very similar to Spot-crowned Woodcreeper
, Lepidocolaptes affinis, but is smaller, has a streaked, not spotted crown, and is found at lower altitudes.
Streak-headed Woodcreeper feeds on spider
s and insect
s, 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 flock
s.
This species' scientific name commemorates Louis François Auguste Souleyet
, French zoologist and naval surgeon .
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
which breeds in the tropical New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
from southern Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
to northwestern Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, northern Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
, and on Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
.
This woodcreeper
Woodcreeper
The woodcreepers comprise a subfamily of sub-oscine passerine birds endemic to the Neotropics. They have traditionally been considered a distinct family Dendrocolaptidae, but most authorities now place them as a subfamily of the ovenbirds...
is found in lowlands up to 1500 m altitude, although normally below 900 m, in damp light woodland, plantations, gardens, and clearings with trees. It builds a leaf-lined nest 4.5 to 24 m up in a tree cavity, or sometimes an old woodpecker
Woodpecker
Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks. They are found worldwide and include about 180 species....
hole, and lays two white eggs.
The Streak-headed Woodcreeper is typically 19 cm long, and weighs 28 g. 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. The 2.5 cm 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.
Streak-headed Woodcreeper is very similar to Spot-crowned Woodcreeper
Spot-crowned Woodcreeper
The Spot-crowned Woodcreeper , is a passerine bird which breeds in the tropical New World from central Mexico in the east, the Sierra Madre Orientals, to northern Panama....
, Lepidocolaptes affinis, but is smaller, has a streaked, not spotted crown, and is found at lower altitudes.
Streak-headed Woodcreeper feeds on spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
s and insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s, 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 flock
Mixed-species feeding flock
A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species, that join each other and move together while foraging...
s.
This species' scientific name commemorates Louis François Auguste Souleyet
Louis François Auguste Souleyet
Louis François Auguste Souleyet was a French zoologist, malacologist and naval surgeon.Souleyet was naturalist-surgeon on the voyage of La Bonite, which circumnavigated the globe between February 1836 and November 1837 under Auguste Nicolas Vaillant . In the Pacific he studied marine molluscs...
, French zoologist and naval surgeon .