White-striped Woodcreeper Lepidocolaptes leucogaster Scientific name definitions

Apparently the sister-species of the Narrow-billed Woodcreeper (Lepidocolaptes angustirostris) of eastern South America, the White-striped Woodcreeper is endemic to western and southern Mexico. It is a slim-bodied, small-medium-sized woodcreeper with a slender, curved bill. Principally warm brown above, both the head and underparts are heavily streaked with white on black, although the throat and cheeks are unmarked bright white. The White-striped Woodcreeper is largely found in subtropical and temperate woodlands above 900 m, although it occasionally ranges much lower, and it is frequently associated with mixed-species flocks. Insects form the greater percentage of its diet.

21·5–23·5 cm; 30–40 g. Slim, medium-sized woodcreeper with long, slender bill and noticeably decurved. Adult has largely pale face and often streaked or smudged dusky, white to buff-white eyering, supercilium and auriculars contrasting with blackish or dusky postocular stripe; blackish to dark brown crown, nape and side of neck blending to olive-brown or tawny on back and wing-coverts, buffy to whitish-buff spotting on forehead becomes streaking on crown and nape, with a few streaks usually extending to upper back (where sometimes narrowly edged blackish); cinnamon-rufous to rufous-chestnut rump, remiges and tail, remiges brownish basally, primaries with dusky tips; throat and sub-moustachial region white to creamy white and unmarked except for weak dusky malar stripe, lowermost throat and breast similar but with blackish edges producing scale-like pattern; remaining underparts dusky gray with blurred white streaking that weakens posteriorly; underwing-coverts ochraceous buff; iris brown; bill dark brown or blackish, lower mandible whitish-gray to pinkish; legs and feet gray to blackish. Female is slightly smaller than male. Juvenile resembles adult, but pale markings and their blackish edges on underparts more irregular in appearance, bill shorter, upperparts more olive-brown, less tawny, and often with indistinct barring. Subspecies umbrosus is smaller than nominate, with pale regions of crown, nape and underparts whiter, dark markings on these areas blacker, greater coverts grayer.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Song a sputtering trill 2–3 seconds long of 20–35 high-pitched notes, begins relatively dry but then descends and becomes more liquid, before slowing slightly at end, “zzzzzz­zzztztztztztzttt-t-t-bt-bt-bt”. Call a short, rough trill described as “tsisirr”.