Spot-crowned woodcreeper
| Spot-crowned woodcreeper | |
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| Species: | L. affinis
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| Binomial name | |
| Lepidocolaptes affinis (Lafresnaye, 1839)
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The spot-crowned woodcreeper (Lepidocolaptes affinis), is a passerine bird which breeds in the tropical New World from central Mexico in the east, the Sierra Madre Orientals, to northern Panama.
This woodcreeper is found in mountains from 1000 m to the timberline in mossy, epiphyte-laden forest and adjacent semi-open woodland and clearings. It builds a leaf-lined nest 0.6 to 8 m up in a tree cavity or old woodpecker or barbet hole, and lays two white eggs.
The spot-crowned woodcreeper is typically 21.5 cm long, and weighs 35 g. It has a spotted crown, olive brown upperparts with fine streaking on the upper back, a chestnut rump, wings and tail, and heavily streaked olive-brown underparts. The bill is slender and decurved. Young birds are duller with less distinct streaking and crown spots.
The spot-crowned woodcreeper is very similar to streak-headed woodcreeper, Lepidocolaptes souleyetii, but is larger, has a spotted crown, and is the only woodcreeper found at high altitudes.
It feeds on spiders and insects, creeping up trunks and extracting its prey from the bark or mosses. It will join mixed-species feeding flocks.
The call is a squeaky deeik and the song is a trill and rattle deeeeeeah hihihihihi.
References
- Stiles and Skutch, A guide to the birds of Costa Rica ISBN 0-8014-9600-4
External links
- Stamps (for El Salvador) with range map
- Photo gallery - VIREO