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Spix's Woodcreeper | Xiphorhynchus spixii
Spix' muisspecht | Trepatroncos de Spix | Arapaçu-de-spix
Spix's Woodcreeper is a medium-sized, spotted woodcreeper of rainforest in eastern Amazonian Brazil. Elegant Woodcreeper used to be treated as a subspecies of this species; older reports from Peru and Bolivia under this name therefore refer to Elegant Woodcreeper. The species has not been confirmed in the guide area.
Voice
The song is a very high, very fast trill that first descends, then stays level and ends on a higher note. The call consists of sharp chip notes followed by a whine, as in Elegant Woodcreeper.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
19–21 cm, with a slender, slightly decurved bill: the upper mandible dark, the lower paler. The upperparts are olive-brown; the crown, nape and mantle bear buff drops and streaks with dark edges. The rump, wings and tail are rufous. The throat is buff; the breast has pale, dark-edged drops. The sexes are alike. It closely resembles Elegant Woodcreeper and differs mainly in voice and range.
Confusion species
Elegant Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus elegans is almost identical in appearance and is the only one of the two that occurs in the guide area; its song is a slower, descending series of whistles. Ocellated Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus ocellatus has an almost plain mantle. Buff-throated Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus guttatus is larger, with a long, pale bill.
Habitat
The interior of humid terra firme rainforest, locally also flooded forest and secondary forest, in the lowlands. It climbs trunks at lower and middle levels and searches for insects and spiders, often in mixed flocks. The nest is in a cavity in a trunk.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia: not confirmed; reports from eastern Peru and from Bolivia almost certainly refer to Elegant Woodcreeper. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area only in Amazonian Brazil south of the Amazon, from the Tapajós east to the Tocantins and Maranhão.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the guide area a woodcreeper of this size with a spotted mantle is almost always Elegant Woodcreeper. Sound recordings and photographs are needed to confirm Spix's Woodcreeper.
Conservation status
Least Concern, although the species is losing habitat to large-scale deforestation in eastern Amazonian Brazil.
Scientific name
Xiphorhynchus spixii | (Lesson, 1830)
Lesson described the species in 1830 as Picolaptes Spixii; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Xiphorhynchus was introduced in 1827 by Swainson. The genus name comes from Greek xiphos, 'sword', and rhunkhos, 'bill'. The species name honours Johann Baptist von Spix (1781–1826), German naturalist who travelled through Brazil from 1817 to 1820. The specimen the first description was based on came from Pará, Brazil.