The plain-brown woodcreeper (''Dendrocincla fuliginosa''), 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 are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

which breeds in the tropical

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

from Honduras through

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

to northern

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, and in

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

and

Tobago Tobago () is an List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, island and Regions and municipalities of Trinidad and Tobago, ward within the Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located northeast of the larger island of Trini ...

. Sometimes it is considered to include the

plain-winged woodcreeper The plain-winged woodcreeper or thrush-like woodcreeper (''Dendrocincla turdina'') is a passerine bird belonging to the woodcreeper group, now classified in the ovenbird family, Furnariidae. It is sometimes considered to be a subspecies of the pl ...

(''D. turdina'') as a subspecies. This

woodcreeper 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 th ...

is typically 22 cm long, and weighs 37 g. It is drab even by woodcreeper standards. As its name implies, it lacks the streaking shown by most of its relatives, and is plain brown above and below. The bill is longish and straight. The normal call is a loud ''stick'', but when following army ants, the groups keep up a noisy chatter. The song is a descending ''te-te-te-tu-tu-tu-tue-tue-tue-chu-chu-chu''. The plain-brown woodcreeper is an insectivore which feeds on

ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of ...

s and other

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s. It feeds low in trees, on the trunk or foliage, but rarely on the ground. It will follow columns of

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 limi ...

s, often in groups of up to a dozen birds. If specialist ant feeders like

antbird The antbirds are a large passerine bird family, Thamnophilidae, found across subtropical and tropical Central and South America, from Mexico to Argentina. There are more than 230 species, known variously as antshrikes, antwrens, antvireos, fire ...

s or larger woodcreepers are present, it tends to keep higher than those species. It also accompanies

South American coati The South American coati (''Nasua nasua''), also known as the ring-tailed coati, is a coati species and a member of the raccoon family (Procyonidae), found in the tropical and subtropical parts of South America. An adult generally weighs from a ...

s (''Nasua nasua'') on their foraging excursions, especially when they feed in trees during the dry season.de Mello Beisiegel (2007) Though it may eat the occasional army ant and coatis might benefit from the birds spotting predators before they do, in both cases the plain-brown woodcreeper is typically a commensale, snatching prey that flees before the more formidable predators. This woodcreeper is a common and widespread forest bird which builds a leaf-lined nest in a

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm ...

stump; two or three white eggs are laid.

Footnotes

References

* de Mello Beisiegel, Beatriz (2007): Foraging Association between Coatis (''Nasua nasua'') and Birds of the Atlantic Forest, Brazil. ''Biotropica'' 39(2): 283–285. (HTML abstract) * ffrench, Richard; O'Neill, John Patton & Eckelberry, Don R. (1991): ''A guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago'' (2nd edition). Comstock Publishing, Ithaca, N.Y.. * Hilty, Steven L. (2003): ''Birds of Venezuela''.

Christopher Helm Christopher Alexander Roger Helm (born Dundee, 1 February 1937 – 20 January 2007) was a Scottish book publisher, notably of ornithology related titles, including the '' Helm Identification Guides''. Born in Dundee, he was raised in Forfar ...

, London.

External links

Plain-brown woodcreeper photo gallery
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https://www.nhlstenden.com/"Suriname Birds"—Map and 2 photos-High Res
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pbase.com–(purple-black legs & reddish brown tailfeathers-!) {{Taxonbar, from=Q1266107 plain-brown woodcreeper Birds of Costa Rica Birds of Panama Birds of Colombia Birds of Venezuela Birds of Ecuador Birds of Trinidad and Tobago Birds of the Guianas Birds of the Amazon Basin Birds of Brazil plain-brown woodcreeper plain-brown woodcreeper