This small, thin brown songbird has a curved bill and creeps along on horizontal branches or upward on trunks of trees. It is usually solitary, but is known to frequent areas with other songbirds, like chickadees, woodpeckers, kinglets, titmice, or nuthatches.
The American tree creeper is the only member in its family, and it uses its long stiff tail for balance while searching for insects within the bark of trees, where its cryptic coloration serves it well. It has a high pitched and piercing call, tending to spiral up a tree. It then flies back down to earth and repeats the process on the same or a different tree.
Brown Creeper
Boomer Lake Station, 2015
Out of the breeding season, they can often be found upon deciduous trees. The creeper enjoys mature forest with large trees, but surprisingly, is often a victim of window strikes. The songbird is sometimes used to determine the health of a forest ecosystem by its presence. Forest management is being changed to increase the numbers of these birds, as well as their comrades, the Marbled Murrelet and Northern Spotted Owl.
The male shares identical plumage with the female, yet he is larger. There are gray, rufous, and brown morphs within the species, as well as three distinct subspecies. The Mexican subspecies is found in southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona. Eastern birds are paler, short billed and larger, while the western birds are smaller, longer billed, and darker. Each subspecies shares different dialects.
This neotropical migrant will winter as far south as Central America, yet many spend winters in the central part of the US. Never expect one of these songbirds at a feeder.
They are Boreal Forest and northeastern and western breeders.
For the Brown Creeper and Species It Surrounds Itself With, See:
https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-birds-say-that-spring-is-here.html
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