Tawny-winged Woodcreeper

How to find it

Look for an army ant swarm rather than for the bird itself. Birds low in the understory, such as Red-throated Ant-Tanagers and barred woodcreepers, hint that a swarm is nearby. On Field Guides trips in 2018, the only Tawny-winged Woodcreepers seen were at swarms in Carara National Park, and some swarms drew three birds at once. A 2019 tour found its Carara birds at swarms too, one of them on the Sendero Meandrica trail. A February 2026 trip met it at a Carara swarm alongside Bicolored Antbird and Gray-headed Tanager. It sometimes feeds away from swarms, behind squirrel monkey troops.

How to recognise it

This is a medium-sized woodcreeper, 17 to 19 cm long, with a straight bill, a short tail and a slightly ruffled nape.

Look for these marks:

- Body: dark olive-brown

- Wings and tail: bright rufous, the contrast that gives the bird its name

- Head: brown, with a buffy eyebrow stripe and bare gray skin around the eye

- Throat: pale buff

- Belly and undertail: cinnamon

Males and females look alike, so you do not need to sort out the sexes. Any bird showing rufous wings against a dark olive-brown body is the one you want.

What it sounds like

Recording: Blake Ross, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Woodcreepers and antbirds are known to follow army ant swarms to catch the insects the ants flush. The Tawny-winged is described as a near-obligate swarm follower, though it does not eat the ants themselves.

It also sometimes feeds away from swarms. In Corcovado and Manuel Antonio National Parks it has been seen following squirrel monkeys, and less often white-faced monkeys, probably picking off the insects they disturb.

Across its range it nests in cavities in stumps, trees or palm trunks and lays two eggs.

Where it lives

It lives mostly in mature humid evergreen forest, secondary forest and forest edges, and in Costa Rica it also uses mangroves. It tends to stay low to the ground.

Across its range it mostly occurs below 500 m, but in Costa Rica it reaches as high as 1,500 m. In the country it is found on the Pacific slope from the Gulf of Nicoya southward, and it continues into western Panama. Records come from Carara National Park, Hacienda Baru National Wildlife Refuge in Puntarenas province, and Cloudbridge Nature Reserve.

Similar birds

Costa Rica has two other Dendrocincla woodcreepers. Plain-brown Woodcreeper is plain and unstreaked, with a straight black bill and two dark lines on the face, and is easiest to see at ant swarms, mainly on the Caribbean slope. Ruddy Woodcreeper is uncommon and mostly met in the understory of moist and dry forest on the northern Pacific slope. The Tawny-winged is the south Pacific one, told by its rufous wings and tail against a dark olive-brown body.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican sources call it Trepador Alirrubio. Elsewhere it has other Spanish names, such as trepatroncos sepia in Mexico and trepatroncos alicastaño in Panama.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican bird list marks it as a resident species (R), and the IUCN rates it Least Concern, though the population is thought to be decreasing.

Photography tips

Wait quietly near an active army ant swarm and let the birds come to you. At a big Carara swarm, woodcreepers have joined antbirds and an antthrush in the open, giving guests close views.