Striped woodcreeper

The striped woodcreeper is medium-sized, with a slim, slightly decurved bill of moderate length. The species is 18 to 20.5 cm (7.1 to 8.1 in) long. Males weigh 27 to 37 g (0.95 to 1.3 oz) and females 24 to 36 g (0.85 to 1.3 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies X. o. obsoletus have a face with thin creamy buff and dark brown streaks that become bold scaling on the sides of the neck. They have a faint pale supercilium or none at all. Their crown and nape are blackish to dark olive-brown with pale spots that have dusky edges. Their back is olive-brown with dusky-edged whitish buff streaks. Their rump, wings, and tail are cinnamon-rufous to rufous-chestnut, with dusky to dark brown tips on the primaries. Their throat is buffy white, sometimes with a faint scaly appearance. Their underparts are grayish olive-brown and sometimes have a rufescent cast; they have buffy-white streaks with black edges that are bold on the breast and weaker on the lower belly and undertail coverts. Their iris is brown to dark brown, their maxilla pale brownish to grayish-horn with a darker base, their mandible pale bluish gray to light brown, and their legs and feet shades of gray or dark brown. Juveniles are similar to adults but with less well defined dark edges to their spots and streaks.

Subspecies X. o. notatus is more rufescent than the nominate; its throat and streaks are a deeper buff to ochraceous and its streaks are finer. X. o. palliatus is even more rufescent; its streaks are more deeply colored and its back and rump are closer in color to each other than are the nominate's. X. o. caicarae is the smallest subspecies and has browner (less grayish) underparts and a shorter bill than the nominate.

The subspecies intergrade in their contact zones.