Mike Powell

Brown Creepers (Certhia americana) are strange little birds. They crawl upwards on tree trunks and large branches in a spiraling motion, pausing periodically to probe crevices for tiny insects with their slender, downcurved bills—they never seem to perch and they rarely seem to fly.  Their mottled coloration helps them to blend in really well with the bark of the trees, so I rarely see a Brown Creeper, though I suspect they may be fairly common.

On Wednesday as I was walking along a trail at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, my eyes detected some moment in a tree just off of the trail. By the time I spotted the bird, which I was able to identify as a Brown Creeper, it was already high up in the tree. Fortunately I was able to track the creeper when it dropped from that tree down to the base of an adjacent tree to begin another upward creep.

I took dozens of photos as the bird circled around the tree and in most of them the bird was blocked or blurred. However, I did manage to get a couple of clear shots. In the first image, you can see the Brown Creeper in action as it investigates a crevice. Note the curve in the bill and the way that it has positioned its large feet for stability. The tail is supposed to be really stiff too and provides additional support.

The second image provides a good look at the long, lanky body of this Brown Creeper. You can see the white underparts of the bird that are usually hidden against the tree trunks. I am fascinated by the patterns in its feathers and the markings on the creeper’s heads and encourage you to click on the image to get a more detailed look at these features.

I love the description of this bird on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website that cited naturalist W.M. Tyler, who wrote in 1948 the following words:

“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.”

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.