The Howland Brown Creeper Page

Page by Royce

The Brown Creeper (Certhia americana) is a fascinating little bird which is very difficult to hear or observe, and even harder to photograph. There are not many in Alberta, and in fact the species is on Alberta Environment's Yellow-B List ("naturally rare or requiring a declining habitat"), according to information at the weaselhead.org site. The Creeper has a fabulous coloring that enables it to blend in with the tree trunks upon which it forages for insects, which makes it even harder to see if the eye doesn't catch it in motion flitting from high on one tree to a lower position on another.

Superficially, the Creeper's foraging technique is similar to that of the Red-breasted Nuthatch, for example. However, unlike the Nuthatch, the Creeper only moves vertically (and quickly!) up the tree (often in a spiral pattern) looking for food. It does not "hatch" seeds or hammer bark to get at what is underneath, but uses its long, thin bill like tweezers to pluck its food from crevices in the bark. While doing this, its strong tail feathers prop it against the tree trunk much like a Woodpecker or Flicker would do.

Resources where you can find out more:

• Brown Creeper profile at weaselhead.org
• Brown Creeper profile at CLO including sound sample

I'm sure there is food in there... (click image for larger photo)

We have been on the lookout for Brown Creepers ever since seeing one come through our south Calgary back yard in the summer of 2001. Recently while on a walk in the Votier's Flats area of Fish Creek Provincial Park with a group from the Calgary Field Naturalists Society, Deb and I saw a Brown Creeper foraging on the ground (which seemed odd). Since then we have been back to the park several times and seen the Creeper, often mixed in with a flock of Black-capped Chickadees, Red- and White-breasted Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers, and so on. Taking a day off work on February 4, 2003, I was again in the Fish Creek Votier's Flats area with my gear. I decided I wasn't going to leave without getting at least one good photo of a Creeper. After stalking a typical mixed flock of birds for awhile, I encountered a Creeper foraging on trees within a couple of meters of my position. This photo resulted. Photo info: 320 x 311 true color Exposure time: 1/278 F-stop: 5.3 ISO speed: 400 Focal length: 71.2000 (plus 1.5X teleconverter) Exposure bias: 0.0000 Metering mode: Center Weighted Exposure program: Normal Compression: 6 Camera make: NIKON Camera model: E5700 Larger photo info: 640 x 623 true color 213KB

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