Lineated Foliage-gleaner

How to find it

Look for it with mixed-species flocks. Tour groups found it that way at Santa Elena near Monteverde and on the Savegre trail. Watching for flocks passing through the understory is the best way to catch it. A tour group had incredible views of this shy, hard-to-see bird from the roadside at Río Macho, so quiet mountain roads are worth a slow walk. Listen first for the scratchy chatter, then scan the vine tangles and tree fern fronds nearby.

How to recognise it

This is a rufous-brown bird about 17 to 19 cm long, a measure that comes from across its whole range.

Look for these marks:

Buff streaks on the head.

Buff streaks on the upperparts.

Buff streaks on the underparts.

A rufous tail.

For a beginner, the useful picture is a warm brown bird with streaking nearly everywhere, seen low in tangled foliage rather than high in the canopy. The streaks on the back matter most, because the most similar species in the same area lacks them.

What it sounds like

Recording: rawcomposition, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The Lineated Foliage-gleaner hunts arthropods alone or in pairs, and it sometimes joins mixed flocks in the understory. In Costa Rica it is usually alone or in pairs and almost always travels with mixed flocks.

Tour groups describe it as shy and hard to see. One group in the oak forest above Savegre watched a bird that seemed to be bringing food to a nest. Later, at Santa Elena, the same group saw a pair with a mixed flock.

Where it lives

Across its whole range this is a bird of dense cloud forest undergrowth, especially along streams. The Costa Rican form lives in the country's mountains and continues into western Panama as far as Veraguas.

In Costa Rica it likes dense foliage and vine tangles in the understory. It favors gaps left by fallen trees, small streams and other small openings in the canopy, in old forest and old secondary growth. On the Caribbean side it ranges from about 600 m up to 2300 m, while on the Pacific side its lower edge is only about 1000 m.

Similar birds

Buff-browed Foliage-gleaner is the most similar species in the same area. It has a whiter throat, no streaks on its upperparts, and a different voice. Streaks on the back point to the Lineated.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans call it Trepamusgo Lineado. Spanish sources elsewhere use other names, such as ticotico rayado, titirí rayado, limpiafronda lineada (Panama) and hojarasquero listado (Colombia).

Status and conservation

The AOCR lists it as a resident (R), and the IUCN rates it Least Concern.

Photography tips

Watch for flocks passing through the understory, since the bird almost always travels with them. Be patient at roadsides where the forest edge gives a clear view into the tangles, as at Río Macho.