Moustached Woodcreeper - Xiphocolaptes falcirostris

Moustached Woodcreeper (Xiphocolaptes falcirostris)
(aka Snethlage's Woodcreeper - Xiphocolaptes falcirostris franciscanus)

Peruaçu, Minas Gerais, Brazil
February 2002

The Moustached Woodcreeper is a Brazilian endemic and is classified by Birdlife International as Vulnerable.

This particular subspecies, X. f. franciscanus, used to be considered a seperate species and was known as Snethlage's Woodcreeper. It was only rediscovered in the 1980s.

It is found only in the interior of north-east Brazil where it inhabits deciduous forest which increasingly is being cleared for agriculture or for charcoal burning.

It is a large woodcreeper at 29 cms (11½") with a heavy, slightly downcurved bill. It has a distinct yellow supercilium and a broad stripe under the eye. The throat is buffy.

It feeds on grubs, ants and beetles and often feeds on the ground.

There is an illustration in Threatened Birds of the World, Page 345.

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