Order PASSERIFORMES 

 Family DENDROCOLAPTIDAE : Woodcreepers, Trepadores 



This family, restricted to the Americas, currently has 48 species 

 recognized in the vast area between northern Mexico and central 

 Argentina. Though variable in size, with total length ranging from 

 140 to 330 mm, all are generally similar in body form, with the shafts 

 of the long tail feathers stiffened at the distal end. Most are rather 

 plain in color, the usual pattern being a mixture of brown, dull chest- 

 nut, olive, and dull gray, variegated in some with lines or bars of 

 black, bufif, and white. They thus blend with the shadows of the 

 forests that are their normal haunts. Like woodpeckers or creepers 

 they climb over the trunks and branches of trees, supported by sharp 

 claws and stiffened tails. The foot has the three anterior toes of the 

 Passeriformes, not the two found in the family of woodpeckers. 

 Their normal flights carry them toward the base of a tree trunk 

 which they then ascend, searching the bark and the moss and other 

 growth on it for their usual food of insects, spiders, and other small 

 prey. While those of Panama may forage occasionally over fallen 

 logs, in South America some of the larger kinds feed regularly on 

 the ground where tree growth is scattered or open. 



Some are regular attendants on moving ant swarms, attracted by 

 the insects flushed by the ants. In such situations several may be 

 found in loose company with birds of other families, assembled be- 

 cause of the abundant food supply. Other than this, w^oodcreepers 

 normally range singly or in pairs. 



Nests placed in natural cavities in trees are lined or padded with 

 leaves or other dry material. The two or three eggs are plain white, 

 sometimes glossy, but without markings. Parents coming to a nest 

 after brief absence frequently bring a bit of dry leaf to add to the 

 nest material. 



The usual country name in Panama is subipalo, tree climber, 

 obviously from their climbing habit, varied to trepador, climber, of 

 similar derivation. In published manuals an early family name was 

 picicule, taken from accounts written in French, varied to woodhewer. 

 long prevalent from the Argentine Ornithology of Sclater and 

 Hudson, published in 1888. As the birds in climbing secure their 

 food by probing or seizing, seldom pecking or hammering wood- 

 pecker-fashion, the group name currently has been varied to wood- 

 creeper, which seems more appropriate. 



