Woodcreepers: Dendrocolaptidae

The diet of most woodcreepers includes insects, spiders, and other invertebrates, animals without a backbone. Some species may eat larger prey such as small lizards. A few species also eat small fruits. In some species, individuals forage, or look for food, in mixed-species flocks that include other species of birds. Most woodcreepers forage, look for food, in trees, searching for insects and other prey hidden in the bark of the trunk and branches or among the mosses, lichens, and other plants that grow on branches. Woodcreepers walk, or "creep" up the tree trunk looking for food. Once they reach the top of one tree, they fly to the base of another tree and begin to forage upwards again. The woodcreepers' stiff tails help support them as they ascend a tree. Some species are also able to catch insects mid-flight, and others are known for following army ants and catching prey that the ants have flushed out.