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Current revision

Photo by revs45
Adventure Farm, Tobago, October 2011

Xiphorhynchus susurrans

[edit] Identification

23cm

• Liver brown upper back
• Dark brown, buff streaked, head and neck
• Rufous upperparts, wings and tail
• Olive-brown underparts
• Buff streaked breast
• Long black decurved bill with hooked tip

[edit] Distribution

Central and South America
Central America: Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago
South America: Colombia and Venezuela

[edit] Taxonomy

Formerly considered conspecific with Buff-throated Woodcreeper (X. guttatus), and still called Buff-throated in some current field guides for Central America.^[1]. The latter is found only in South America.

[edit] Subspecies

There are 8 subspecies:^[2]

• X. s. confinis:

• Caribbean slope of eastern Guatemala and northern Honduras

• X. s. costaricensis:

• South-eastern Honduras to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and western Panama

• X. s. marginatus:

• Eastern Panama (eastern Chiriquí, Veraguas and western Azuero Peninsula)

• X. s.s nanus:

• Both slope of eastern Panama to northern Colombia and western Venezuela

• X. s. rosenbergi:

• Western Colombia (upper Cauca Valley in Valle)

• X. s. jardinei:

• North-eastern Venezuela (north-eastern Anzoátegui, Sucre and northern Monagas)

• X. s. margaritae:

• Isla Margarita (off northern Venezuela)

• X. s. susurrans:

• Trinidad and Tobago; one record from north-eastern Venezuela (se Sucre)

[edit] Habitat

Humid lowland forest, primary and mature secondary woodland and urban woodland. Observed at heights around 622 m (2,042 ft) elevation.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Breeding

It nests in tree holes or hollow stumps, lined with bark. The clutch consists of 2 white eggs.

[edit] Diet

The diet includes insects, ants and spiders. It will follow columns of army ants. Creeps up tree trunks flaking off loose bark in its search for invertebrates.

[edit] Vocalisation

Call: kew-kew-kew-kew.

[edit] References

1. Del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, and D Christie, eds. 2007. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553422
2. Clements, JF. 2011. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to August 2011. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist

• List of references

[edit] External Links