Xenops is a genus in the bird family Furnariidae, the ovenbirds.

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,[2] while others have found them to be part of the "traditional" ovenbirds.

[4] Formerly, the rufous-tailed xenops was placed in this genus, but it has been moved to the monotypic Microxenops.