Brown Creeper

On a warm winter day I saw some movement on a tree. It was difficult to see what it was because of its (small) size and camouflage plumage. It looked like a small bird that would climb up a tree, fly down to the base of the tree, and then climb it again taking a somewhat different route to the top. This happened a few times, making me think it might be a Brown Creeper, famous for this tree-foraging technique. And it was.

Though there are other treecreepers in the world (mostly in Eurasia), there are no other treecreepers in North America. My field guide implies that their closest relatives around here are the nuthatches (like the White-breasted Nuthatch I've shown before), but there's some DNA evidence that suggests they're more closely related to wrens and gnatcatchers, with nuthatches moving to somewhat more distant relatives.

When climbing up a tree, the speckled plumage that's visible to us blends in well with tree bark, reminding me of how well some owls can camouflage in trees.

March 6, 2023 at Duke Island Park
Photo 267704494, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

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