xenops

plural xenopses

1. Any of the tropical birds in the genera Xenops, Megaxenops and Microxenops, found in Central and South America.

   Xenopses can hammer! The xenops has an upturned beak that it uses to hammer into decaying wood, to look for insects.

   2021 June 29, Anna Lazowski, T. Rexes Can't Tie Their Shoes, Doubleday Books for Young Readers, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   PLAIN XENOPS Xenops minutus 12cm Separable from other xenopses by lack of streaking (check this carefully!). Short, level series of 4-5 very high, piercing notes. Understorey of humid forest and woodland. <1,000m, locally higher.

   2015 09, Birds of South America: Passerines, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 60

   [...] xenopses hang chickadeelike while searching the underside of a leaf. Ovenbirds of various species are often members of mixed foraging flocks. Woodcreepers were once placed in their own family, the Dendrocolaptidae, but are now grouped[…]

   2017 March 7, John Kricher, The New Neotropical Companion, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 298