The northern long-tailed woodcreeper is a species of bird in subfamily Dendrocolaptinae of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname.
Region
Guianan Shield
Typical Environment
Occurs in lowland and foothill evergreen rainforest across the Guianas and adjacent northern Brazil. Prefers intact terra firme forest with tall, closed canopies and well-developed midstory, and is most frequent in interior forest away from edges. It also uses mature secondary forest and occasionally seasonally flooded habitats where large trees are present. Typically forages from the lower trunk to the subcanopy, clinging to bark and probing crevices.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 900 m
Climate Zone
Tropical
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
A shy, bark-gleaning woodcreeper of the Guianan Shield, it spends much of its time hitching up trunks and large branches in mature rainforest. Its very long, rufescent tail and slender slightly decurved bill help separate it from similar species. It sometimes joins mixed-species flocks and only occasionally attends army-ant swarms. Often detected more by its thin, high whistles than by sight.
Temperament
shy and unobtrusive
Flight Pattern
short rapid wingbeats between trunks, with brief undulating hops
Social Behavior
Usually solitary or in pairs while foraging, often within territories in mature forest. Regularly integrates into mixed-species flocks traveling through the midstory. Nests in tree cavities or natural holes, with both sexes likely participating in nesting duties.
Migratory Pattern
Resident
Song Description
Song is a soft, high, thin series of descending whistles, sometimes delivered as a short trill. Calls include delicate tseet notes that carry weakly through dense foliage.
Plumage
Mostly plain brown to olive-brown above with warmer rufescent wings and very long, graduated rufous tail; throat and upper breast finely streaked buff to whitish. Underparts otherwise dusky to brown with faint mottling.
Diet
Feeds mainly on arthropods such as beetles, ants, roaches, spiders, and caterpillars gleaned from bark and epiphytes. Probes into crevices, under loose bark, and among mosses and lichens. Very rarely takes small vertebrates or other invertebrates when available.
Preferred Environment
Forages on trunks and large limbs from the understory to subcanopy of mature rainforest. Often follows mixed flocks and occasionally works along edges of treefalls or light gaps where prey is concentrated.
