Spot-crowned Woodcreeper

About the Spot-crowned Woodcreeper

The spot-crowned woodcreeper (Lepidocolaptes affinis), is a passerine bird in the subfamily Dendrocolaptinae of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. it is found in Middle America from Mexico to Panama. What is now the montane woodcreeper (L. lacrymiger) was formerly considered conspecific with the spot-crowned woodcreeper but they were split in the early 2000s. The spot-crowned woodcreeper's taxonomy since then remains unsettled. The International Ornithological Committee and the Clements taxonomy assign it these three subspecies:

L. a. lignicida (Bangs & Penard, TE, 1919) L. a. affinis (Lafresnaye, 1839) L. a. neglectus (Ridgway, 1909) However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treats L. a. neglectus as a separate species, the southern spot-crowned woodcreeper. It calls L. a. affinis and L. a. lignicida the northern spot-crowned woodcreeper.

This article follows the one species, three-subspecies, model. The spot-crowned woodcreeper is 19 to 22 cm (7.5 to 8.7 in) long and weighs 28 to 38 g (0.99 to 1.3 oz). It is a slim, medium-sized woodcreeper with a slim, moderately decurved bill. The sexes have the same... Wikipedia →