About Lepidocolaptes affinis (Lafresnaye, 1839)
The spot-crowned woodcreeper, with scientific name Lepidocolaptes affinis (Lafresnaye, 1839), measures 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 identical plumage. For adults of the nominate subspecies L. a. affinis, the face and sides of the neck are dusky, marked with a black malar stripe. Their crown and nape are dark brown, with prominent buffy spots or diamond-shaped markings that sometimes extend as thin streaks onto the upper back. Their back and wing coverts are plain brown, their rump is rufous-cinnamon, and their wings and tail are rufous-chestnut. The flight feathers have brown edges, and the primaries have dusky tips. Their underparts are olive-brown with wide black-edged buffy streaks that start at the lowest part of the throat and fade on the flanks and undertail coverts. Their underwing coverts are ochraceous buff. Their iris is dark brown, their legs and feet are lead-gray to dull green, and their bill can be bluish pink, pale gray, yellowish, or dark brown, with the base often darker and the tip a pale silvery horn. Juveniles are darker overall than adults, with less conspicuous crown spots, less distinct borders on their underpart streaks, and a shorter, darker bill. Subspecies L. a. lignicida is similar to the nominate but much paler overall. Subspecies L. a. neglectus is browner (less olivaceous) than the nominate, with a deeper buff throat and wider, paler, almost whitish streaks on its underparts. The spot-crowned woodcreeper is very similar to the streak-headed woodcreeper (L. souleyetii), but can be distinguished by its spotted (rather than streaked) crown. The two species also have only minimal overlap in their ranges. The distribution of the spot-crowned woodcreeper is not continuous. The northernmost subspecies, L. a. lignicida, occurs in the northeastern Mexican states of Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, and San Luis Potosí. The nominate subspecies L. a. affinis is found from southern Mexico south through Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador into Nicaragua, and is not present in Belize. L. a. neglectus is found in Costa Rica and western Panama. The spot-crowned woodcreeper lives in both humid and dry forests, mostly in highland areas. Its habitat includes humid evergreen montane forest and cloudforest, as well as drier deciduous, oak, pine, and pine-oak woodlands. It occurs in the interior of primary forest, but is thought to be more common at forest edges and in mature secondary forest. It also lives in plantations, and in clearings and pastures that have scattered trees. In elevation, it mostly occurs between 1,000 and 3,500 m (3,300 and 11,500 ft), though it can be found as low as 400 m (1,300 ft) during the non-breeding season. In Costa Rica, it rarely occurs below 1,500 m (4,900 ft).
