Spot-crowned Woodcreeper

Lepidocolaptes affinis

eBird describes the Spot-crowned Woodcreeper like this:  Fairly active, medium-sized woodcreeper of pine, pine-oak, and evergreen forest in highlands. Usually found in ones or twos, often traveling with mixed-species feeding flocks of tanagers, orioles, warblers, and others. Creeps up trunks and smaller branches, often poking into epiphytes. Note the slender, slightly curved bill, fine creamy dots on the crown, and creamy streaking on underparts. Calls are thin, reedy whistles, given infrequently.

The Birds of the World website introduces the Spot-crowned Woodcreeper with this descriptive information:  The Spot-crowned Woodcreeper is endemic to Middle America, where it ranges south discontinuously across both slopes from Mexico to Panama. Like other members of the genus Lepidocolaptes, this is a small to mid-sized woodcreeper with a pale, slender, and slightly curved bill. The upperparts and tail are largely warm brown, while the underparts are duller brown, streaked radially with creamy white, and the head and neck are also dark, spotted and streaked paler. Also like other congenerics, the Spot-crowned Woodcreeper is a regular constituent of mixed-species flocks in a wide range of forest types throughout its range, usually in singles but occasionally in pairs.

I met, and photographed, this bird on the morning of February 8, 2023, while hiking a trail above the Savegre Hotel in Costa Rica.  I was with a small group from Tropical Birding when I watched this bird.  My photos are not anything to brag about, due to the low light conditions under the jungle canopy.