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Information about Woodcreeper

Woodcreepers
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Passeriformes
Family:Furnariidae
Subfamily:Dendrocolaptinae
Genera


Around 15-20, see article text


The woodcreepers, Dendrocolaptinae, comprise a subfamily of sub-oscine passerine birds endemic to the neotropics. They were formerly considered a distinct family, Dendrocolaptidae.

Generally brownish birds, the true woodcreepers maintain an upright vertical posture, supported by their stiff tail vanes, and feed mainly on insects taken from tree trunks. However, woodcreepers often form part of the core group at the center of flocks attending army ant swarms. Though unrelated, they superficially resemble the Old World treecreepers. Woodcreepers are arboreal cavity-nesting birds; 2-3 white eggs are laid and incubated for about 15 days.

These birds can be difficult to identify in that they tend to have similar brown upperparts, and the more distinctive underparts are hard to see on a bird pressed against a trunk in deep forest shade. The bill shape and call are useful aids to determining species.

Systematics

The former family has been merged into the ovenbird family, Furnariidae. Analyses of mt and nDNA sequence data showed Sclerus leaftossers and Geositta miners to be basal to the Furnariidae and the woodcreepers (Irestedt et al. 2002). Maintaining Dendrocolaptidae as a separate family between them and the other furnariids created a paraphyletic Furnariidae, hence the merger.

Interestingly, the xenops, which were usually considered to be ovenbirds with a somewhat woodcreeper-like plumage, are in fact closely related to the latter (Fjeldså et al., 2005). They are best considered to form a separate tribe and give a good impression of how the ancestors of the woodcreepers must have looked like. The true woodcreepers are characterized by a belly feather growth pattern not found in any other birds.

The systematics of the Dendrocolaptinae were reviewed by Raikow (1994, based on morphology) and Irestedt et al. (2004, based on analysis of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences). As the latter paper revealed, the commonplace convergent evolution of bill morphology hampered Raikow's analysis. Color patterns, on the other hand, were more in agreement with the molecular data, but the generally drab coloration of the woodcreepers renders this character less informative than desirable. The work of Irested et al., on the other hand, was severely limited by unavailability of samples of many phylogenetically interesting taxa.

For example, the Deconychura species apparently belong into separate genera, but only D. longicauda was available for molecular analysis. Moving Lepidocolaptes fuscus to Xiphorhynchus restores monophyly of Lepidocolaptes, and Xiphorhynchus was very much under-split (Aleixo, 2002a,b). Hylexetastes may contain anything from 1 to 4 species.

It remains unresolved whether the Scimitar-billed and Long-billed Woodcreepers' distinctiveness is due to strong selective pressure (and therefore rapid morphological evolution) of forms related to Lepidocolaptes and Dendrexetastes, respectively, or to long-time evolution of distinct lineages which separated early in the evolution of the group, with genetic similarity due to long branch attraction. The data gained from the myoglobin intron II DNA sequence disagrees strongly with mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data regarding the validity of Lepidocolaptes in general Irestedt et al. (2004); as the latter agrees much better with morphological and biogeographical data it therefore is used here.

More detailed studies are needed to resolve these questions, namely reevaluation of morphological data in the light of the molecular findings, and new molecular studies which thoroughly sample the questionable genera.

FAMILY FURNARIIDAE
Subfamily Dendrocolaptinae - woodcreepers

Tribe Xenopini - xenops Tribe Dendrocolaptini - true woodcreepers

References

  • Aleixo, Alexandre (2002): Molecular systematics, phylogeography, and population genetics of Xiphorhynchus (Aves: Dendrocolaptidae) in the Amazon basin. Ph.D. dissertation, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. PDF fulltext
  • Aleixo, Alexandre (2002): Molecular Systematics and the Role of the "Várzea"-"Terra-Firme" Ecotone in the Diversification of Xiphorhynchus Woodcreepers (Aves: Dendrocolaptidae). Auk 119(3): 621-640. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2002)119[0621:MSATRO]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract
  • FjeldsÃ¥, Jon; Irestedt, Martin & Ericson, Per G. P. (2005): Molecular data reveal some major adaptational shifts in the early evolution of the most diverse avian family, the Furnariidae. Journal of Ornithology 146: 1–13. [English with German abstract] doi:10.1007/s10336-004-0054-5 (HTML abstract) PDF fulltext
  • Irestedt, Martin; FjeldsÃ¥, Jon; Johansson, Ulf S. & Ericson, Per G.P. (2002): Systematic relationships and biogeography of the tracheophone suboscines (Aves: Passeriformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 23(3): 499–512. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(02)00034-9 (HTML abstract)
  • Irestedt, Martin; FjeldsÃ¥, Jon & Ericson, Per G. P. (2004): Phylogenetic relationships of woodcreepers (Aves: Dendrocolaptinae) - incongruence between molecular and morphological data. Journal of Avian Biology 35(3): 280-288. doi:10.1111/j.0908-8857.2004.03234.x (HTML abstract)
  • Rajkow, Robert J. (1994): A phylogeny of the woodcreepers (Dendrocolaptinae). Auk 111(1): 104–114. PDF fulltext
  • Remsen, J. Van (2003): Family Dendrocolaptidae (Woodcreepers). In: del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (editors): Handbook of Birds of the World, Volume 6: Broadbills to Tapaculos: 358-447. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-50-4

External links

Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Passeriformes
Linnaeus, 1758

Suborders
  • Acanthisitti
  • Tyranni
  • Passeri


A passerine is a bird of the giant order Passeriformes. More than half of all species of bird are passerines.
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Furnariidae

Subfamilies
  • Sclerurinae
  • Dendrocolaptinae
  • Furnariinae


Ovenbirds or furnariids comprise a large family of small sub-oscine passerine bird species found in Central and South America.
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family (Latin: familia, plural familiae) is a rank, or a taxon in that rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Code which applies.
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Tyranni

Infraorders
  • Eurylaimides
  • Tyrannides
(but see text)

The suborder of passerine birds Tyranni (the suboscines) includes about 1,000 species, the large majority of which are South American.
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Passeriformes
Linnaeus, 1758

Suborders
  • Acanthisitti
  • Tyranni
  • Passeri


A passerine is a bird of the giant order Passeriformes. More than half of all species of bird are passerines.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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endemic, in the context of bird endemism, refers to any species found only in a specific area. There is no upper size limit for the geographical area. It would not be incorrect to refer to all bird species as endemic to Earth; in practice, however, the largest areas for which the
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In biogeography, Neotropic or Neotropical refers to one of the world's eight terrestrial ecozones.

This ecozone includes South and Central America, the Mexican lowlands, the Caribbean islands, and southern Florida, because these regions share a large number of plant
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family (Latin: familia, plural familiae) is a rank, or a taxon in that rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Code which applies.
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The name army ant (or legionary ant) is applied to over 200 known species, in different lineages, together characterized primarily by their aggressive predatory foraging groups, known as "raids", in which huge numbers of ants all forage simultaneously over a certain area,
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The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans, Asians, and Africans in the 15th century before the voyages of Christopher Columbus; it includes Europe, Asia, and Africa (collectively known as Africa-Eurasia), plus surrounding islands.
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Certhidae

genera

Certhia
Salpornis

The treecreepers (Certhiidae) are a family of small passerine birds, consisting of two subfamilies:
  • The typical treecreepers

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Furnariidae

Subfamilies
  • Sclerurinae
  • Dendrocolaptinae
  • Furnariinae


Ovenbirds or furnariids comprise a large family of small sub-oscine passerine bird species found in Central and South America.
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Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria. Most other DNA present in eukaryotic organisms is found in the cell nucleus. Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA are thought to be of separate evolutionary origin, with the mtDNA being derived from the
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DNA sequence or genetic sequence is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, with the capacity to carry information.
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In phylogenetics, basal members of a group diverged earlier than a subgroup of others (or vice versa). It is often used in opposition to the word derived. The following are example usages of the term basal:....
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In phylogenetics, a group of organisms is said to be paraphyletic (Greek para = near and phyle = race) if the group contains its most recent common ancestor, but does not contain all the descendants of that ancestor.
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Xenops
Illiger, 1811

Species

See text.

Xenops is a genus in the South American bird family Furnariidae, the ovenbirds.
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In biology, a tribe—or infrafamily—is a rank between subfamily and genus, or between subfamily and subtribe, if that rank is used.


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The term morphology in biology refers to the outward appearance (shape, structure, color, pattern) of an organism or taxon and its component parts. This is in contrast to physiology, which deals primarily with function.
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Nuclear DNA , nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid (nDNA), is DNA contained within a nucleus of eukaryotic organisms. In most cases it encodes more of the genome than the mitochondrial DNA and is passed sexually rather than matrilineally.
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Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria. Most other DNA present in eukaryotic organisms is found in the cell nucleus. Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA are thought to be of separate evolutionary origin, with the mtDNA being derived from the
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DNA sequence or genetic sequence is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, with the capacity to carry information.
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In evolutionary biology, convergent evolution is the process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches[1].
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In phylogenetics, a group is monophyletic (Greek: "of one race") if it consists of an inferred common ancestor and all its descendants. A taxonomic group that contains organisms but not their common ancestor is called polyphyletic, and a group that contains some but not all
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D. bridgesii

Binomial name
Drymornis bridgesii
(Eyton, 1849)

The Scimitar-billed Woodcreeper (Drymornis bridgesii) is a species of bird in the Dendrocolaptidae family.
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