Wedge-billed Woodcreeper

How to find it

Look in the understory of lowland and foothill rainforest, where it is one of the woodcreepers seen most often. Watch the mixed feeding flocks, which are a good way to find it. Tour groups often pick it up by ear on forest trails, and a Birdquest group heard one on a reserve trail in the morning before breakfast. Learn the keekekekiki song and the sneezy schip before you go. Check trunks with fine, flaky bark, where it likes to forage.

How to recognise it

Start with size: this bird is about 14 to 15 cm long.

The upperparts are brown, with a buff eyebrow. The rump, wings and tail are chestnut. The throat is buff. The underparts are brown with buff chevron spots. In flight, a buff wing bar shows clearly from below.

The bill is the best clue. It is short, wedge-shaped and turned up, quite unlike other woodcreepers, and it looks almost like a xenops bill. The tail is longer than a xenops tail and its feathers are sharply pointed. Tour reports call it a tiny xenops-like woodcreeper, which is a handy way to remember it.

What it sounds like

Recording: Niels Krabbe, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 5 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It creeps up trunks and picks small spiders and insects from the bark. It prefers trees with fine, flaky bark.

You may see it alone, in a pair, or sometimes within mixed-species feeding flocks. In the Caribbean foothills at Tapanti, one crept along thick branches as part of a big mixed flock, and another fed near a Spotted Barbtail. Tortuguero's forest trails also hold mixed flocks that include it alongside other woodcreepers and Plain Xenops.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it lives in the understory of most lowland and foothill rainforest sites. It reaches about 1,500 m elevation and occurs on both the Caribbean and Pacific slopes.

A tour group found it at many sites, from La Selva and Carara in the lowlands up to Tapanti National Park at about 5,000 feet. Groups have also met it on the Curi-Cancha reserve walk at Monteverde and in the deep south near Golfito. There is some evidence of birds moving up and down in elevation.

When to see it

The breeding season in Costa Rica runs from March to June.

Similar birds

The Plain Xenops is the bird most easily mistaken for it, because both have a short, wedge-shaped, upturned bill. The woodcreeper has a longer tail with sharply pointed feathers. Among woodcreepers it is smaller and shorter-billed than any other, and the small bill is the clue.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans call it trepadorcito pico de cuña. Other countries use different Spanish names, such as trepatroncos picocuña in Mexico and Nicaragua.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident (R), and the IUCN rates it Least Concern, with a very large range and no immediate threats identified.

Photography tips

Woodcreepers in general are very hard to photograph in Costa Rica. Following a mixed flock and watching fine-barked trunks gives you the best chance.