Sharp-tailed streamcreeper

The sharp-tailed streamcreeper (Lochmias nematura) is a passerine bird of South America in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. Alternate names include streamside Lochmias, sharp-tailed creeper, and simply streamcreeper. It is found in Panama and every mainland South American country except Chile, French Guiana, and Suriname.

The sharp-tailed streamcreeper is the only member of its genus and has these six subspecies:

Subspecies L. n. obscuratus might be a separate species, but this idea is complicated by L. n. sororius, whose characteristics are intermediate between obscuratus and the nominate subspecies L. n. nematura.

The sharp-tailed streamcreeper is 13 to 14 cm (5.1 to 5.5 in) long and weighs 20 to 38 g (0.71 to 1.3 oz). It is a rather dark furnariid with a long and slightly decurved bill. The sexes' plumages are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a narrow ragged white supercilium, blackish lores, dull brownish ear coverts with rufescent shafts, and a whitish malar area. Their crown is dark brown with faint spots on the forehead. Their back is rich reddish brown that blends to a blackish rump and uppertail coverts. Their tail is sooty blackish and has a "spiny" appearance because the feather tips have bare shafts. Their wings are a similar reddish brown to the back. Their chin is whitish, their throat feathers whitish with dark brown tips, their breast dull dark brown heavily spotted white, and their belly colored like the breast but with white streaks. Their undertail coverts are blackish brown with pale shafts. Their iris is dark brown to brown, their maxilla black to brownish, their mandible black to grayish horn, and their legs and feet highly variable from dull pink to dark brown. Juveniles are similar to adults but with less well defined, somewhat buffy, spots on their underparts.

The other subspecies of the sharp-tailed streamcreeper differ from the nominate and each other thus:

The sharp-tailed streamcreeper has several widely separated ranges. The subspecies are found thus:

The sharp-tailed streamcreeper was first seen in Guyana in 2002 and a specimen was collected there in 2004. It is not positively known which of the Venezuelan subspecies the Guyanese records belong to, though they are attributed to L. n. castanonotus.

The sharp-tailed streamcreeper is always found near streams and small rivers with dense undergrowth. In the mountains of Panama and Venezuela and south through the Andes it inhabits montane evergreen forest at elevations between 700 and 2,800 m (2,300 and 9,200 ft). In its southeastern range it inhabits lowland evergreen forest and mature secondary forest.