Moustached Woodcreeper
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The moustached woodcreeper (''Xiphocolaptes falcirostris'') is a
Vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...
of
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 the 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
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to
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 ...
.


Taxonomy and systematics

The moustached woodcreeper has two subspecies, the
nominate Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In th ...
''X. f. falcirostris'' (
Spix Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix (9 February 1781 – 13 March 1826) was a German natural history, biologist. From his expedition to Brazil, he brought to Germany a large variety of specimens of plants, insects, mammals, birds, amphibians and fish. ...
, 1824) and ''X. f. franciscanus'' ( Snethlage, 1927). The latter has sometimes been treated as a separate species ("Snethlage's woodcreeper") and by at least one author as a subspecies of the white-throated woodcreeper (''X. albicollis''). Subspecies ''X. a. villanovae'' of the white-throated has sometimes been assigned to the moustached woodcreeper.Marantz, C. A., A. Aleixo, L. R. Bevier, and M. A. Patten (2020). Moustached Woodcreeper (''Xiphocolaptes falcirostris''), 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.mouwoo1.01 retrieved June 27, 2023Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, G. Del-Rio, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 31 May 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved May 31, 2023


Description

The moustached woodcreeper is one of the largest members of its subfamily. It is heavy-bodied, with a shortish tail and a long thin bill. It is long and weighs about . The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a brown face with a buffy
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 ...
, lores, and moustachial stripe. Their crown is cinnamon-brown to dark olive-brown with thin buff streaks. Their back is rufous-brown and their rump, wings, and tail are cinnamon-rufous. Their throat is pale buffy to whitish and their underparts light brown to cinnamon-buff. Their flanks have faint buffy streaks and their central belly has faint grayish brown bars. Their iris is dark reddish to brown, their
maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...
dark gray to black, their
mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...
pale gray to horn colored, and their legs and feet olive-gray to dark gray. Juveniles are similar to adults with wider and blackish streaks on the belly and a dark mandible. Subspecies ''X. f. franciscanus'' compared to the nominate has on average a shorter tail and a longer bill, darker and more olive underparts, weaker streaks on the crown, and narrower streaks on the belly. The subspecies overlap in all characteristics.


Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of the moustached woodcreeper is found in northeastern Brazil, from eastern
Maranhão Maranhão () is a States of Brazil, state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of and it is divided into 217 municipalities. Clockwise from north, it ...
,
Piauí Piauí ( ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP. Piauí has the shortest coastline of any coas ...
, and northwestern
Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...
east as far as western
Paraíba Paraíba ( , ; ) is a states of Brazil, state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and it is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Paraíba i ...
and central
Pernambuco Pernambuco ( , , ) is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.5 million people as of 2024, it is the List of Brazilian states by population, ...
. It occurs only locally within that area. Subspecies ''X. f. franciscanus'' is found in eastern Brazil west of the
São Francisco River The São Francisco River (, ) is a large Rivers of Brazil, river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon R ...
in western Bahia and northern and northwestern
Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...
. The species inhabits deciduous and semi-deciduous woodland, wooded ''
caatinga Caatinga () is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" comes from the Tupi word '' ka'atinga'', meaning "white forest" or "white vegetat ...
'', and
gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...
. It favors the interior of intact and slightly altered forest, tending to stay in the tallest growth. It occasionally occurs at the edges of the forest. In elevation it mostly occurs below but reaches as high as at sites in the northern part of its range.


Behavior


Movement

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


Feeding

The moustached woodcreeper's diet is primarily insects, though it has been observed eating snails. It typically forages singly, in pairs, or in what are thought to be family groups; it shuns
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. It is not known to follow
army ant The name army ant (or legionary ant or ''marabunta'') is applied to over 200 ant species in different lineages. Because of their aggressive predatory foraging groups, known as "raids", a huge number of ants forage simultaneously over a limited ...
swarms. It mostly forages from the forest mid-level to the canopy but sometimes on the ground as well. It hitches along trunks and branches, probing cavities, bark, and especially
bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a Family (biology), family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the Tropics, tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and on ...
s.


Breeding

The moustached woodcreeper is thought to breed in the austral summer, roughly between October and December. No nest has been found, so the clutch size, incubation period, and time to fledging are not known. Both males and females have been found with brood patches, so both parents are thought to incubate eggs and care for nestlings.


Vocalization

The moustached woodcreeper's song is a "series of 4-7 double-notes, like 'wèèè-TJUH wèèè-TJUH - -'." The notes often gradually change to "Tu-Tjuh". Its call is a "whining, drawn-out 'wèèè-tuh' " with the "tuh" being "high and dry".


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 ...
originally assessed the moustached woodcreeper as Threatened but since 1994 has classed it as Vulnerable. It has a fairly large overall range but is spottily found within it. Its estimated population of between 2500 and 10,000 mature individuals is believed to be decreasing. "The widespread destruction of dry forest in interior Brazil has rapidly reduced the now small population of this species. Remaining populations are severely fragmented and continuing to decline." The species is considered uncommon to rare and very local. It is " gally protected in Brazil, and conservation measures have had some success in setting aside key sites as parks and reserves."


References


External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q796659 Xiphocolaptes Birds of Brazil Birds of the Caatinga Endemic birds of Brazil Birds described in 1824 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot