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Striped Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus obsoletus Scientific name definitions

Curtis A. Marantz, Alexandre Aleixo, Louis R. Bevier, and Michael A. Patten
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 2003

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Introduction

The Striped Woodcreeper is widely distributed virtually throughout the Amazon Basin, where it prefers evergreen forests in close proximity to water, especially on large river islands, or near to rivers and lakes, although it also ranges marginally into the Cerrado region. The species is practically confined to lowland areas below 500 m. Like many woodcreepers, comparatively little is known of its breeding biology, but feeding behaviour has been well studied. The Striped Woodcreeper feeds mainly on insects, and usually selects small-sized prey items. It regularly joins mixed-species flocks, from the understory to the canopy, and the species appears to prefer to inspect slimmer-trunked trees. The Striped Woodcreeper is generally fairly common, expect in areas where flooded forest habitats are rare, or at the edge of its range, where competition with Elegant Woodcreeper (Xiphorhynchus elegans) occurs.

Field Identification

18–20·5 cm; male 27–37 g, female 24–36 g. Medium-sized woodcreeper with slim, slightly decurved bill and about as long as width of head. Nominate race has face finely but evenly streaked creamy buff and dark brown, becoming bold scaling on side of neck, pale supercilium indistinct or lacking; crown and nape blackish to dark olive-brown, ­extensively marked with teardrop-shaped whitish-buff spots with dusky margins, back olive-brown (sometimes slight rufous tone), almost throughout with elongate dusky-margined whitish-buff streaks, rump, wings and tail cinnamon-rufous to rufous-chestnut, lesser coverts olive with fine shaft streaks, primary tips dusky to dark brown; throat buffy white, often with weak scaling; underparts greyish olive-brown (sometimes more rufescent) with black-edged streaks of buffy-white extending boldly across breast and upper belly, before narrowing and weakening on lower belly and undertail-coverts; underwing-coverts cinnamon; iris brown to dark brown; upper mandible pale brownish to greyish-horn, base and culmen darker, cutting edges ivory-coloured, lower mandible pale bluish-grey to light brown; legs and feet slate-grey, blue-grey, greenish-grey or dark brown. Similar to Dendroplex picus but bill duskier and slightly decurved, overall coloration more olive, back and underparts more extensively streaked, latter also with streaks more linear and usually with blackish edges; X. pardalotus has bill black, throat and streaks more cinnamon in colour, and is largely restricted to terra firme forest. Female is slightly smaller than male. Juvenile resembles adult, but margins of streaks and spots on nape, back and underparts more poorly defined. Races differ mainly in general coloration, but with substantial individual variation both above and below: notatus is more rufescent than nominate, with throat and streaks (both above and below) deeper buff to ochraceous; also more finely and more narrowly streaked than palliatus; palliatus even more rufescent overall, with markings more deeply coloured, less contrast between back and rump, and bill heavier; caicarae is on average smaller than nominate, with underparts browner, less greyish, bill shorter.

Systematics History

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Relationships uncertain; on basis of molecular data, earlier thought perhaps to be ancestral to a morphologically variable clade that included X. susurrans, X. guttatus, X. flavigaster and X. lachrymosus, and possibly also X. erythropygius and X. triangularis. Assessment of race notatus complicated by marked individual variation in coloration, and intergradation over seemingly wide area with both nominate and palliatus; birds from R Purus drainage (possibly also R Madeira), in W Brazil, sometimes recognized as race multiguttatus, but intermediate between nominate and palliatus. Race caicarae poorly differentiated (relative to nominate) and with biogeographically unlikely range; doubtfully valid. Original description of race palliatus in issue dated 1855, but not published till 1856 (1). Four subspecies recognized.

Subspecies

SUBSPECIES

Xiphorhynchus obsoletus notatus Scientific name definitions

Distribution

drainages of R Apure, upper R Orinoco, lower R Caura and upper R Negro in E Colombia (Arauca, Vichada), W and S Venezuela and adjacent NW Brazil; birds from lower R Negro intermediate with nominate.
SUBSPECIES

Xiphorhynchus obsoletus caicarae Scientific name definitions

Distribution

middle Orinoco Valley in C Venezuela (NW Bolívar).
SUBSPECIES

Xiphorhynchus obsoletus palliatus Scientific name definitions

Xiphorhynchus obsoletus palliatus
X. o. palliatus

Distribution

W Amazonia, both N and S of Amazon, in SE Colombia (Meta, Caquetá), E Ecuador, E Peru, W Amazonian Brazil (E to R Negro and to R Juruá) and N Bolivia (S to N La Paz and NW Beni); birds from R Purus intermediate with nominate.
SUBSPECIES

Xiphorhynchus obsoletus obsoletus Scientific name definitions

Xiphorhynchus obsoletus obsoletus
X. o. obsoletus

Distribution

E Amazonia in E Venezuela (Delta Amacuro), the Guianas and N Brazil (lower R Negro E to Amapá and, S of Amazon, from R Madeira E to R Tocantins and S to W and N Mato Grosso); populations in NE Bolivia (NE Santa Cruz) and NE Venezuela (E Monagas) likely represent this race.

Distribution

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Habitat

Evergreen forest, especially near water. Principally floodplain-forest and seasonally (and tidally) flooded forests, frequenting both várzea and igapó, large river islands, wooded swamps, and edges of rivers and lakes, locally also forest on sandy soils and terra firme forest; along S fringe of Amazonia, ranges in gallery forest a short way into cerrado region. Largely restricted to low-lying fig (Ficus) swamps in SE Peru, but one radio-tracked bird repeatedly attempted to expand territory into adjacent terra firme and late-successional forest defended by X. elegans and X. chunchotambo; this bird spent 35% of its time outside swamp, making long circuits through territories of X. elegans, before returning to swamp upon expulsion by territory-owners. May prefer interior of mature forest at upland sites; away from flooded forest found mostly in second growth, at forest edge, or even in scattered trees near clearings. Exclusively Amazonian lowlands below 500 m.

Movement

Resident.

Diet and Foraging

Chiefly insectivorous. Stomach contents mostly beetles and various species of ant, with lesser quantities of hemipteran bugs, cicadas and lanternflies (Homoptera), cockroaches (Blattodea), caterpillars, and spiders. Observed prey in one study were remarkably small, generally less than 0·5 cm, only occasionally longer than 1 cm. Forages singly, less frequently in pairs. Usually apart from mixed-species flocks, but associates transitorily with those that pass through its habitat; one radio-tracked bird spent only c. 25% of its time with flocks. Joins both understorey and canopy flocks, but seems to prefer those with Thamnomanes antshrikes over those without. Radio-tracking revealed that one bird in swamp-forest switched between a canopy flock (with which spent 14% of its time) and an understorey flock (8%); defence of flock minimal, unlike X. chunchotambo and, especially, X. elegans. Forages primarily while hitching up trunks and branches from understorey to subcanopy; in one study, preferred slim trunks 2–7 m up, with mean height 5·5 m; regularly creeps along undersides of horizontal branches. Most prey obtained by gleaning, pecking or probing (roughly 70% in one study), but sallies recorded significantly more frequently (30% of attempts) than for all others of genus at same site; items taken mostly from surface of trunks, limbs or palm stubs (c. 70%), with remaining 30% split evenly between foliage (including palm fronds, and both flowers and leaves of cacao) and mid-air sallies. Has been suggested that sallying may be adaptation for living in flooded forest with open understorey, which not easily exploited by gleaning woodcreepers; also that increased percentage of sallying may correspond to more alert behaviour, and thus reduced need to travel with flocks for protection from predators. Single birds and pairs only occasionally encountered among birds foraging over army ants (Eciton burchelli) that move through várzea. Subordinate to X. elegans (at least within latter’s territories in upland forest), but dominant over Sittasomus griseicapillus; interactions with X. chunchotambo in high-ground forest were equivocal. High degree of overlap in diet and substrate use with both X. elegans and X. chunchotambo results in intolerance (aggression at almost every encounter within flocks) and interspecific territoriality; also significant overlap in these parameters with Lepidocolaptes albolineatus, a canopy species separated spatially at most sites, but limited data suggest both interspecific territoriality and reciprocal turnover of territories where the two do meet.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Song, among first heard in flooded forests at dawn and last heard at dusk (also intermittently during day), a trill 1·5–3 seconds long, 20–35 sharp notes, first stuttering, then speeding up slightly, rises conspicuously at end, “che-e-e-e-e-e-ee-ie-ie-iek!”; at some sites in E Colombia, song said to be instead a sharp “peep” followed by trill; similar but slightly descending trill sometimes given when agitated. Calls include “sip” note like that of hummingbird (Trochilidae), also “ti-dik” and dry twittering “tit-it-it” or “si-si-sip”.

Breeding

Specimens in breeding condition in Nov and Feb–May in S Venezuela, E Colombia and adjacent Brazil, but nests with eggs in both mid-Feb and early Aug in Surinam. Nest in cavity in palm stump, also recorded in arboreal nest of termites (Isoptera); territory at site in SE Peru suggested as 14 ha, but only loosely territorial, seems not to defend an exclusive area. Clutch 2 eggs, white, average 25 × 19 mm.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Generally uncommon to fairly common in C Amazonia, especially where bottomland and seasonally flooded forests are extensive; rare and somewhat local at periphery of range in regions where occupies other habitats. Estimated densities in early-successional forest and mature floodplain-forest in SE Peru 0·5–2·5 pairs/100 ha (after correcting for small percentage of plot occupied). A radio-tracked bird at site in SE Peru ranged over area of 78 ha but occurred exclusively in only 2·4 ha; home range was therefore quite large compared with congeners occupying same site, with daily movements almost double those of territorial X. elegans. Populations at some sites near edge of range apparently depressed by competition with dominant X. elegans, which restricts present species to habitats that may be marginal or of limited extent, as evidenced by constant attempts by one bird to expand territory, and rapid turnover of territories in swamps at SE Peru site. Believed to be at least moderately sensitive to loss and fragmentation of forest; successional nature of its habitat, however, suggests greater tolerance of modification than is shown by most terra firme species. An indicator of flooded tropical evergreen forest in N & S Amazonia, and more specifically of flooded swamp-forest in SE Peru.
Distribution of the Striped Woodcreeper - Range Map
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Distribution of the Striped Woodcreeper

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Recommended Citation

Marantz, C. A., A. Aleixo, L. R. Bevier, and M. A. Patten (2020). Striped Woodcreeper (Xiphorhynchus obsoletus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.strwoo2.01
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