Amazonian Barred-Woodcreeper

The Amazonian barred woodcreeper is one of the larger members of its subfamily. It is slim, with a long tail, a medium-length straight bill with a slightly hooked tip, and (in the male) a shaggy crest. It is 26 to 28.5 cm (10 to 11 in) long. Males weigh 50 to 73.5 g (1.8 to 2.6 oz) and females 52 to 79 g (1.8 to 2.8 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies D. c. certhia have a mostly brownish face with fine barring, a weak supercilium, and pale lores and auriculars. Their forehead to crown are darkish olive-brown with golden-buff streaks on the crown. Their back and wing coverts are a lighter olive-brown with weak blackish bars. Their flight feathers, rump, and tail are cinnamon-rufous to rufous-chestnut, with dusky tips on the primaries. Their chin and throat are pale gray to dirty white that contrasts with the deep buff to fulvous underparts; the underparts have fine dusky bars. Their underwing is cinnamon-rufous to ochre-yellow. Their iris is reddish to dark brown, their bill dark red to brownish with lighter edges and base of the mandible, and their legs and feet are brown, greenish, gray, olive, or black. Juveniles resemble adults but with less obvious barring, no pale streaks on the crown, and a shorter and darker bill. Subspecies D. c. juruanus is like the nominate but without the golden streaks on the crown. D. c. …

The Amazonian barred woodcreeper is a bird of the Amazon Basin. The subspecies are found thus:

D. c. certhia, extreme eastern Colombia, southern and eastern Venezuela, the Guianas, and Brazil north of the Amazon River between the Rio Negro and the Atlantic Ocean in the state of Amapá D. c. radiolatus, north of the Amazon River in southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, northern and central Peru, and northwestern Brazil east to the Rio Negro D. c. juruanus, south of the Amazon River in southeastern Peru, northern and central Bolivia, and western Brazil east to the Rio Madeira and south into Mato Grosso D. c. concolor, northeastern Bolivia, and Brazil between the Rio Madeira and Rio Tapajós (the "interfluvium") D. c. medius, northeastern Brazil south of the Amazon from the Rio Tocantins to the Atlantic in Maranhão state; also separately in coastal Pernambuco and Alagoas states, where possibly extirpated D. c. retentus, the Rio Xingu-Rio Tocantins interfluvium in Brazil's Pará state D. c. ridgwayi, Brazil south of the Amazon between the Rio Tapajós and Rio Xingu The Amazonian barred woodcreeper inhabits humid evergreen forest. It is partial to mature terra firme forest but also regularly occurs in flooded and flood-plain forest. It is found less frequently in savanna forest, mangroves, and at the fringes of its range, deciduous and gallery forest. …

The Amazonian barred woodcreeper forages alone, as part of mixed-species feeding flocks, and by following army ant swarms to feed on prey disturbed by the ants. It typical follows ant swarms singly or in pairs but up to four have been observed at a swarm. When attending a swarm it typically perches on a near-vertical trunk and makes short flights to pick prey mostly from foliage but also from the ground, trunks, and vines. Away from ant swarms it forages by sallies from a perch to foliage and less frequently to trunks. Its diet is mostly arthropods including insects, spiders, centipedes, and caterpillars, and also includes small vertebrates like lizards.