About Dendrocincla anabatina P.L.Sclater, 1859
The tawny-winged woodcreeper (Dendrocincla anabating P.L.Sclater, 1859) measures 17 to 19 cm (6.7 to 7.5 in) in length. For the nominate subspecies, males weigh 34 to 42 g (1.2 to 1.5 oz) and females weigh 29 to 39 g (1.0 to 1.4 oz). This species is a medium-sized member of its genus, with a straight bill, short tail, and ruffled nape. Males and females share identical plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a brown head with a buffy supercilium and bare gray skin surrounding the eye. Their crown, nape, and back are dark olive-brown, while their uppertail coverts and tail range from cinnamon-rufous to rufous-chestnut. Their wing coverts are dark olive-brown, and their flight feathers are tawny with dusky tips. Their throat is pale buff, and their underparts are light olive-brown that shifts to cinnamon on the belly and undertail coverts. Their iris ranges from yellowish brown to gray, their maxilla is dark brown or black, their mandible is gray or bluish, and their legs and feet are dark blue-gray to blackish. Juveniles resemble adults, but have a duller throat, a wider supercilium, and sometimes a white eye. Subspecies D. a. typhla is paler than the nominate subspecies, particularly on its underparts. D. a. saturata has darker, more olivaceous upperparts than the nominate, and the centers of its flight feathers are duller.
Three subspecies of tawny-winged woodcreeper have distinct ranges. The nominate subspecies is found along the Caribbean slope from southeastern Veracruz in southern Mexico (excluding the Yucatán Peninsula) south through Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras to eastern Nicaragua. D. a. typhla occurs on the Yucatán Peninsula. D. a. saturata is found on the Pacific slope from Costa Rica's Gulf of Nicoya into Panama's Chiriquí Province.
The tawny-winged woodcreeper primarily lives in mature humid evergreen primary and secondary forest, and less commonly occupies forest edges and nearby semi-open landscapes. On the Yucatán Peninsula it also lives in semi-deciduous forest, and in Costa Rica it occurs in mangroves. It tends to remain low to the ground. Most of its population lives below 500 m (1,600 ft) in elevation, but it can be found as high as 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in Mexico and northern Central America, and up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Costa Rica.
