Ceara Woodcreeper
Xiphorhynchus atlanticus
Small, slim woodcreeper with a thin slightly decurved bill. Found in humid forests, where it regularly follows mixed-species flocks. The rufous-brown body is heavily marked with drop-shaped spots on the breast, head, and back. Separated from Lesser Woodcreeper by range, blurry streaks on belly, and olive-yellow eyering, eyestripe, and throat.
Identification
The Ceara woodcreeper is a small, slim member of its genus, with a disproportionatly large head and a longish, slim, slightly decurved bill. The species is 15 to 18.5 cm (5.9 to 7.3 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a mostly dusky face with a thin creamy to yellowish buff supercilium and often a pale eyering. Their crown and nape are blackish brown with small yellowish buff to cinnamon spots on the crown. The spots become streaks on the nape and sides of the neck and weakly continue onto the upper back. Their back and wing coverts are olive-brown to reddish brown. Their flight feathers, rump, and tail are rufous-chestnut with darker outer webs and tips on the flight feathers. Their throat is creamy yellow with a faint darker pattern. Their breast and belly are ochracous brown with a subdued scaly appearance from blurry dark-edged buff spots. Their undertail and underwing coverts are cinnamon. Their iris is dark brown, their maxilla blackish brown to dark horn (often with a darker base), their mandible pinkish to white (sometimes with a darker tip), and their legs and feet olive-gray to bluish gray.
Taxonomy
The Ceara woodcreeper was originally placed in genus Lepidocolaptes but has been in its current assignment since the late 1990s. Until the 2010s it was considered a subspecies of the lesser woodcreeper (X. fuscus).<p>The Ceara woodcreeper is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Xiphorhynchus atlanticus
- Authority
- (Cory, 1916)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Xiphorhynchus
Range and habitat
The Ceara woodcreeper is found only in northeastern Brazil, from Ceara south into Alagoas north of the Rio São Francisco. It inhabits humid forest, both primary and secondary and also relict patches of brejos de altitude in the Caatinga. In elevation it reaches 600 m (2,000 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The Ceara woodcreeper is believed to be a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The Ceara woodcreeper's diet and foraging behavior have not been detailed but they are assumed to be similar to those of its former "parent", the lesser woodcreeper (which see here: Lesser woodcreeper#Feeding).<p>Nothing is known about the Ceara woodcreeper's breeding biology.<p>The Ceara woodcreeper's song is similar to that of the lesser woodcreeper (which see here: Lesser woodcreeper#Vocalization), but it has fewer and sharper introductory notes and an ascending trill. Their calls are thought to be alike: a "very high, sharp 'fieet fieet' " and "doubled 'peep, peesp' and single 'speel' or 'wik' ".
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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