{"id":16428,"date":"2022-12-31T06:40:31","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T11:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/p4td_\/?p=16428"},"modified":"2022-12-31T06:40:31","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T11:40:31","slug":"northern-barred-woodcreeper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/p4td_\/?p=16428","title":{"rendered":"Northern Barred-Woodcreeper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Northern Barred-Woodcreeper: Danta Cocorvodo Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 \u2014 On our way for a morning excursion to the observation tower at Danta Corcovado, we happened on a swarm of small army ants crossing one of the trails\u2026two swarm lines actually… one just below my cabin and one further down by the bridge over the stream. It is amazing how many birds, including this Woodcreeper, are specialized ant swarm feeders. For the next few days I will be sharing some of these ant swarm birds. I did a little research this morning to refresh my memory. Army ants are nomadic. They do not build permanent nests like other ants but can stay in a camp or bivouac for up to 20 days, foraging in lines out from the camp and feeding the queen as she broods eggs (up to a million eggs a month so these swarms are huge). The new worker ants reach maturity just as the eggs hatch and the whole swarm has to move on, in order to find enough food to feed the new larvae. That is generally when you see the long lines of ants moving through the forest. If you look carefully you will see that ants are moving in both directions as they carry prey back to feed the larvae and the queen, which are being carried along in the rear of the march. They pretty much kill any living insect or spider, small reptiles and amphibians, even birds, that they encounter (though many army ants can not actually consume the birds they kill)\u2026so they stir up just about everything that is able to get out of their path. A surprising number of birds have specialized in following the ant swarms and feeding on the insects, spiders, an small vertebrates which are exposed as they flee. Some of them have the word \u201cant\u201d as part of their name, but the Northern Barred-Woodcreeper is rarely seen except when an army ant swarm is passing over an open trail\u2026as one was on that morning at Danta Corcovado. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications with multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. Terrible light so equivalent ISO of 2500 @ f4 @ 1\/500th. <\/p>\n

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