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Streak-headed Woodcreeper | Lepidocolaptes souleyetii
Streepkopmuisspecht | Trepatroncos corona rayada
The Streak-headed Woodcreeper is a slender, small woodcreeper with a thin, slightly decurved, pale bill. It is one of the commonest lowland woodcreepers and occurs more than most relatives in semi-open country, plantations and gardens.
Voice
A fast, descending, somewhat trilling series of clear notes. Also a sharp, dry call.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
19–21 cm. Bill thin, slightly decurved and pale horn. Crown and nape dark brown with fine pale streaks, giving a streaked look to the head. Back brown, wings and tail rufous. Underparts brown with narrow, black-edged buff streaks; throat paler buff. Male and female are alike.
Confusion species
Spot-crowned Woodcreeper Lepidocolaptes affinis lives in the mountains and has pale spots on the crown rather than streaks. Ivory-billed Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus flavigaster and Cocoa Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus susurrans are larger and have a longer, heavier bill. Straight-billed Woodcreeper Dendroplex picus has a straight, dagger-shaped bill.
Habitat
Semi-open country with trees, forest edges, open and secondary forest, dry forest, gallery forest, mangroves, plantations, shade coffee and gardens with large trees; mainly in the lowlands and foothills, locally higher. It climbs trunks and branches and searches the bark for insects. It nests in a tree cavity.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
From southern Mexico throughout Central America to Panama. Outside the guide area in northern South America, from Colombia and Venezuela to the Guianas and northern Brazil, and in the west to north-western Peru.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Often seen in parks and gardens with old trees and along forest edges; note the thin, curved, pale bill.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Common and adapts fairly well to semi-open, human-altered country.
Scientific name
Lepidocolaptes souleyetii | (des Murs, 1849)
Des Murs described the species in 1849 as Dendrocolaptes Souleyetii; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Lepidocolaptes was introduced in 1853 by Reichenbach. Lepidocolaptes is Greek, from lepis, lepidos 'scale' and kolaptēs 'chiseller, woodpecker', after the scaly markings on head and breast. souleyetii honours the French naval surgeon and zoologist Louis François Auguste Souleyet (1811–1852), who collected on the voyage of the Bonite. The specimen the first description was based on came from Paita, Peru.