Xenops

{{Short description|Genus of birds}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Xenops rutilans.jpg

| image_caption = Streaked xenops (Xenops rutilans)

| taxon = Xenops

| authority = Illiger, 1811

| type_species = Xenops genibarbis{{cite web |url= https://www.aviansystematics.org/4th-edition-checklist?viewfamilies=112 |title= Funariidae |author= |date= |website= aviansystematics.org |publisher= The Trust for Avian Systematics |access-date= 2023-07-16}}

| type_species_authority = Illiger, 1811

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision =

See text.

}}

Xenops is a genus in the bird family Furnariidae, the ovenbirds. The genus comprises four species of xenops, all of which are found in Mexico, Central America and South America, particularly in tropical rain forests.

They are small birds with a longish tail, a laterally flattened bill with an upturned tip (except in the slender-billed xenops), brown back and buff or rufous wing stripe. They forage for insects on bark, rotting stumps or bare twigs, moving mechanically in all directions on the trunk like a woodcreeper, but without using the tail as a prop.

Together with the distinct great xenops (Megaxenops parnaguae), this genus forms the tribe Xenopini, which based on some recent studies belongs in the woodcreeper and xenops subfamily Dendrocolaptinae,Fjeldså, J., M. Irestedt, & P. G. P. Ericson (2005). Molecular data reveal some major adaptational shifts in the early evolution of the most diverse avian family, the Furnariidae. Journal of Ornithology 146: 1–13. while others have found them to be part of the "traditional" ovenbirds.Moyle, R. G., R. T. Chesser, R. T. Brumfield, J. G. Tello, D. J. Marchese, & J. Cracraft (2009). Phylogeny and phylogenetic classification of the antbirds, ovenbirds, woodcreepers, and allies (Aves: Passeriformes: infraorder Furnariides). Cladistics 25: 386-405. A study from 2013 found that they should be a family distinct from both.{{cite journal|last1=Ohlson|first1=J|last2=Irestedt|first2=M|last3=Ericson|first3=P|last4=Fjeldså|first4=J|title=Phylogeny and classification of the New World suboscines (Aves, Passeriformes)|journal=Zootaxa|date=2013|volume=3613|issue=1|pages=1–35|doi=10.11646/zootaxa.3613.1.1|pmid=24698900|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261371295}}