Photo: Brown Creeper, Donna Keller/Great Backyard Bird Count
Brown Creeper, the Tiny Tree Hugger
By Jessica Bigger
The first time I was introduced to the Brown Creeper (Certhia americana) was in my Ornithology class at Humboldt State University and it was love at first sight. However, to this day, I have not been lucky enough to spot one out in the field. But it’s no surprise, these cryptic little guys are well camouflaged by the bark they forage on.
The Brown Creeper gets its name from its foraging behavior. It generally feeds on the trunks of mature evergreen and deciduous trees, especially trees with deep furrowed bark. This little guy starts at the bottom of the tree and works its way up in a spiral formation until it reaches the top. Then it flutters back down to the bottom of the next tree to spiral its way back up again. Just one spider can give a Brown Creeper enough energy to climb 200 feet without needing to take a break. Unlike nuthatches, who can move up and down a tree, the Brown Creeper only moves in one direction – up.
Plumage is the creeper’s best defense; enabling it to blend into tree bark when there is a predator approaching. It will then spread its wings and flatten its body to the trunk, frozen in place until the threat has passed.
Here in Northern Virginia our tiny feathered friends arrive in late fall or early winter and stay through early spring. They are widespread across the continental United States in winter and in some areas year-round. Brown Creepers usually inhabit mature forests, but in winter you might also see or hear them in local parks and suburbs. Because they blend so well into their surroundings, it’s best to keep your ears peeled for their delicate call, “seet, seet, seet.” Brown Creeper males sing during the breeding season and migration.
Although the Brown Creeper’s status (9 million) is stable throughout North America, their population is declining due to habitat loss, fragmentation, climate change and window collisions. But climate change seems to be their major threat. Audubon scientists have developed climate models that predict a shift in the Brown Creeper’s range in the future due to an increase in temperature. Already the species’ distribution throughout southern Canada has decreased by 57%. And the population is moving farther north, responding to temperature shifts. Another major threat to this species is spring heat waves, which can harm nestlings. In the west, wildlife managers use Brown Creepers as an indicator species to study how logging affects bird populations in the area.
So, this winter keep your ears tuned and eyes peeled for our little cryptic friends. As naturalist W.M. Tyler wrote in 1948, “The Brown Creeper, as he hitches along the bole of a tree, looks like a fragment of detached bark that is defying the law of gravitation by moving upward over the trunk, and as he flies off to another tree, he resembles a little dry leaf blown about by the wind.”
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/brown-creeper
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown_Creeper/overview
https://abcbirds.org/bird/brown-creeper/