The cinnamon-throated woodcreeper (''Dendrexetastes rufigula'') is a sub-oscine

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in subfamily

Dendrocolaptinae The woodcreepers (Dendrocolaptinae) comprise a subfamily of suboscine 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 ...

of the ovenbird

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Furnariidae. It is found in

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. 28 March 2023. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved April 15, 2023

Taxonomy and systematics

The cinnamon-throated woodcreeper is the only member of genus ''Dendrexetastes''. Four

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are recognized: * ''D. r. devillei'' ( Lafresnaye, 1850) * ''D. r. rufigula'' ( Lesson, RP, 1844) * ''D. r. moniliger'' Zimmer, JT, 1934 * ''D. r. paraensis'' Lorenz von Liburnau, L, 1895 Subspecies ''D. r. devillei'' has been proposed as a separate species but differs little from the others in voice.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 30 January 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved January 30, 2023Marantz, C. A., A. Aleixo, L. R. Bevier, and M. A. Patten (2020). Cinnamon-throated Woodcreeper (''Dendrexetastes rufigula''), 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.citwoo1.01 retrieved May 29, 2023 The cinnamon-throated woodcreeper is genetically most closely related to the long-billed woodcreeper (''Nasica longirostris''). A high resolution version of the phylogenetic tree in Figure 1 is available from the first author's websit
here
Dendrexetastes rufigula Castelnau

Description

The cinnamon-throated woodcreeper is one of the larger woodcreepers, with a heavy body, short wings, and a short, stout, bill with a slightly hooked tip. It is long. Males weigh and females . The sexes are alike. The

nominate subspecies In biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. ...

''D. r. rufigula'' has mostly medium brown upperparts with a paler crown and rufous-chestnut wings, rump, and tail. A few whitish streaks span the nape and upper back. It is generally paler and more cinnamon-brown below. Its throat is a brightish rusty buff, its breast has wide black-edged whitish streaks that extend to the sides of the neck, and sometimes weak darker bars on the lower belly and undertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

. Its iris is red to light brown, its bill horn-gray, bluish horn, or brownish to dull greenish yellow, and its legs and feet slate gray, greenish gray, bluish black, or brown. Subspecies ''D. r. devillei'' has a weaker pattern than the nominate, with much fainter streaks on the breast, none on the neck, and no bars on the belly. ''D. r. paraensis'' is very like the nominate, but with a bold white

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...

and rounder streaks on the breast and neck. ''D. r. moniliger'' is duller and less rufescent than the other subspecies, but has bolder streaking on the breast and neck.

Distribution and habitat

The subspecies of the cinnamon-throated woodcreeper are found thus: * ''D. r. devillei'', western

Amazonia The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses , of which are covered by the rainf ...

from central Colombia, eastern Ecuador, and eastern Peru east into Brazil as far as the Rio Madeira (and probably to the Rio Negro) and south into northern Bolivia * ''D. r. rufigula'', northeastern Amazonia from eastern Venezuela through

the Guianas The Guianas, also spelled Guyanas or Guayanas, are a geographical region in north-eastern South America. Strictly, the term refers to the three Guianas: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, formerly British, Dutch, and French Guiana respectiv ...

, and northern Brazil from the Rio Negro to the Atlantic Ocean * ''D. r. moniliger'', Amazonian Brazil south of the Amazon River between the Rio Madeira and the

Rio Tocantins The Tocantins River ( , Parkatêjê: ''Pyti'' ɨˈti is a river in Brazil, the central fluvial artery of the country. In the Tupi language, its name means "toucan's beak" (''Tukã'' for "toucan" and ''Ti'' for "beak"). It runs from south to nort ...

and south to

Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – ) is one of the states of Brazil, the List of Brazilian states by area, third largest by area, located in the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible ...

* ''D. r. paraensis'' , Amazonian Brazil south of the Amazon and east of the Rio Tocantins The cinnamon-throated woodcreeper mostly inhabits humid forest, both '' terra firme'' and '' várzea''. In the Guianas it typically occurs in forest on sand ridges and savanna. It favors palm forest, the edges of

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zo ...

, and mid- to late-age

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

rather than the interior of

primary forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without Disturbance (ecology), disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organizati ...

; it also frequently occurs on river islands. In elevation it mostly occurs below but is occasionally found as high as in the Andean foothills at the western edge of its range.

Behavior

Movement

The cinnamon-throated woodcreeper is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The cinnamon-throated woodcreeper forages alone or in

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. These ar ...

s about equally, but less frequently in pairs. It hitches along trunks and branches from the forest's mid-level to the canopy and also creeps and probes among living and dead leaf clusters and

epiphyte An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

s. Its diet is not known in detail but appears to be mainly

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

s with some fruit.

Breeding

The cinnamon-throated woodcreeper's breeding season is not well known; in the Guianas it breeds in the dry season. It nests in a tree cavity, either natural or excavated by a woodpecker, and also sometimes in thatched roofs. The clutch is two or three eggs. The incubation period, time to fledging, and details of parental care are not known.

Vocalization

The cinnamon-throated woodcreeper sings mostly at dawn and dusk. One author describes the song as "a fast series of loud rattled notes, ascending at first and descending and trailing off at the end". It "always ends with a distinctive lower-pitched 'tchew' or 'trreew' note". Another describes it as a "very high loud series of ringing notes, sounding almost like a trill."

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the cinnamon-throated woodcreeper as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range, and though its population size is not known it is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered to be "uncommon to common, but often local, throughout its range." It is more often heard than seen, which makes accurate counts difficult. It is thought to be "highly sensitive to habitat modification, even disappearing from selectively logged forest at one site."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q595838 cinnamon-throated woodcreeper Birds of Southern Amazonia Birds of the Guiana Shield cinnamon-throated woodcreeper Taxonomy articles created by Polbot