the brown creeper (certhia americana), also known as the american tree creeper , is a small songbird , the only north american member of the treecreeper family certhiidae .
adults are brown on the upper parts with light spotting , resembling a piece of tree bark , with white underparts .
they have a long thin bill with a slight downward curve and a long stiff tail used for support as the bird creeps upwards .
the male creeper has a slightly larger bill than the female .
the brown creeper is 11.713.5 cm (4.65.3 in) long .
its voice includes single very high pitched , short , often insistent , piercing calls; see , or swee .
the song often has a cadence like; pee pee willow wee or see tidle swee , with notes similar to the calls .
their breeding habitat is mature forests , especially conifers , in canada , alaska and the northeastern and western united states .
they are permanent residents through much of their range; many northern birds migrate farther south to the united states .
brown creeper has occurred as a vagrant to bermuda and central america's mountains in guatemala , honduras and the northern cordillera of el salvador .
as a migratory species with a northern range , this species is a conceivable vagrant to western europe .
however , it is intermediate in its characteristics between common treecreeper and short-toed treecreeper , and has sometimes in the past been considered a subspecies of the former , although its closest relative seems to be the latter (tietze et al .
, 2006) .
since the two european treecreepers are themselves among the most difficult species on that continent to distinguish from each other , a brown creeper would probably not even be suspected , other than on a treeless western island , and would be difficult to verify even then .
brown creepers prefer mature , moist , coniferous forests or mixed coniferous/deciduous forests .
they are found in drier forests as well , including engelman spruce and larch forest in eastern washington .
they generally avoid the rainforest of the outer coast .
while they generally nest in hardwoods , conifers are preferred for foraging .
as with many of washington's birds , the cascades divided this species into two subspecies .
the species has declined in much of north america but appears to be doing well in washington , with a small (not significant) increase on the state's breeding bird survey since 1966.they forage on tree trunks and branches , typically spiraling upwards from the bottom of a tree trunk , and then flying down to the bottom of another tree .
they creep slowly with their body flattened against the bark , probing with their beak for insects .
they will rarely feed on the ground .
they mainly eat small arthropods found in the bark , but sometimes they will eat seeds in winter .
breeding season typically begins in april .
the female will make a partial cup nest either under a piece of bark partially detached from the tree , or in a tree cavity .
it will lay 3-7 eggs , and incubation lasts approximately two weeks .
both of the parents help feed the chicks .
the song is a short series of high-pitched sees .
as a migratory species with a northern range , this species is a conceivable vagrant to western europe .
however , it is intermediate in its characteristics between common treecreeper and short-toed treecreeper , and has sometimes in the past been considered a subspecies of the former , although its closest relative seems to be the latter (tietze et al .
, 2006) .
brown creepers prefer mature , moist , coniferous forests or mixed coniferous/ deciduous forests .
they are found in drier forests as well , including engelman spruce and larch forest in eastern washington .
they generally avoid the rainforest of the outer coast .
while they generally nest in hardwoods , conifers are preferred for foraging .
since the two european treecreepers are themselves among the most difficult species on that continent to distinguish from each other , a brown creeper would probably not even be suspected , other than on a treeless western island , and would be difficult to verify even then .
brown creeper has occurred as a vagrant to bermuda and central america's mountains in guatemala , honduras and the northern cordillera of el salvador .
image:brown creeper greatfalls .
jpg|a creeper at great falls , md , usa image:creeper .
ogv|brown creeper spiraling in biddeford , me file:brown creeper (certhia americana) .
