Plain-winged Woodcreeper

The plain-winged woodcreeper is 19 to 21 cm (7.5 to 8.3 in) long and weighs 23 to 45 g (0.81 to 1.6 oz). The species is a medium-sized member of its genus, with a short straight bill. The sexes have the same plumage but females are significantly smaller than males. The nominate subspecies is mostly olive-brown. Its crown has faint buff streaks, its throat is pale buff, and its flight feathers, uppertail coverts, and most tail feathers are slightly rufescent. Its wing linings are ochraceous buff. Its iris is brown, its bill gray to blackish with often a paler mandible, and its legs and feet brown to gray. Subspecies D. t. taunayi has more prominent streaks on its crown but is otherwise like the nominate.

The nominate subspecies of the plain-winged woodcreeper is found from Brazil's Bahia state south into northern Rio Grande do Sul and slightly into eastern Paraguay and northeastern Argentina's Misiones Province. Subspecies D. t. taunayi has a very limited range in northeastern Brazil's Alagoas and Pernambuco states. (Note that the map does not include this subspecies' range.) The species primarily inhabits humid lowland primary and mature secondary forest. It also occurs in foothill cloudforest and, in the cerrado, gallery forest. It favors the forest interior but also occurs at its edges. In elevation it reaches 1,250 m (4,100 ft) but is mostly found lower.

The plain-winged woodcreeper often follows swarms of army ants such as Eciton burchelli and Labidus praedator to capture prey disturbed by the ants. It often does so as part of a mixed-species feeding flock. Away from army ants, it also joins flocks led by the cinereous antshrike (Thamnomanes caesius). When attending ants it typically perches on a nearly vertical trunk up to about 3 m (10 ft) above the ground and sallies to pick prey from the ground, other trunks, foliage, and in mid-air. In a study in Paraguay and Argentina it often followed black capuchin monkeys (Sapajus nigritus) and other studies have seen it following coatis. Its diet is mostly arthropods but it has also been observed feeding bats and frogs to nestlings.