Brown Creeper
Certhia americana
Summary 7
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.
Distribution 8
Brown creepers (Certhia americana) are the only treecreepers in North America. They are found throughout North America from Canada and Alaska to as far south as northern Nicaragua. In Alaska and Canada, brown creepers generally breed along the coast. In British Columbia, brown creepers breed along the western coast and through the central and southern interior. Limited surveys have been done to determine the northern limits of brown creepers. In the western United States, brown creepers are found throughout forested areas of the Rocky Mountains in western Washington, Oregon and the northern mountains of California.
Brown creepers are year-round residents throughout much of their range. However, brown creepers that breed in the northern part of the geographic range migrate south for the winter. Brown creepers winter throughout most of the United States except for high mountain regions, the Great Basin, Sonoran Desert, southern Texas and Florida.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native ); neotropical (Native )
Morphology 9
Brown creepers are tiny birds with mottled feathers that make them nearly indistinguishable from a piece of bark when viewed at a distance. They have dark-brown upperparts that are heavily streaked with white on the head, back, scapulars (feathers covering the shoulder), and wings. They have a distinctive brown stripe through their eye and a white stripe above it. The underparts are white with red/brown lightly mixed in. They have a long, stiff tail with feathers that are used as props to help the birds move up and around the trunk of a tree.
Brown creepers are 11.7 to 13.5 cm long and weigh 7.2 to 9.9 g. Their wing chords measure 62.9 to 65.5 mm. A standard metabolic rate for brown creepers was measured at 4.0 kcal/24 hours.
Male and female brown creepers are very similar in appearance. Their decurved bills are one of the only ways to differentiate between the sexes. Males tend to have a slightly longer bill (1 to 2 mm longer) than females.
Range mass: 7.2 to 9.9 g.
Range length: 11.7 to 13.5 cm.
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Habitat 10
Brown creepers live in coniferous forests and mixed coniferous-deciduous forests. They require large trees (dead or alive) for foraging and nesting. In the Pacific Northwest, brown creepers also live in coniferous forests but avoid the forests of the Olympics where trees are much larger and more spread apart. In the Rocky Mountains, brown creepers are found more in older red cedars, spruce-fir, and mixed conifer rather than in younger forests.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; tropical ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: forest
Migration 11
Non-Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species do not make significant seasonal migrations. Juvenile dispersal is not considered a migration.
Locally Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).
Locally Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.
South of a line from southeastern British Columbia, North Dakota, Minnesota, Ontario, to Nova Scotia, are year round residents and do not migrate. In the mountains of the west they undertake altitudinal seasonal migrations, moving down into the foothills and valleys during the winter (Ryser 1985). In the vicinity of Bozeman, Montana, elevational movements occur Feb 20 to Apr 20 and Sep 10 to Oct 30).
Sources and Credits
- (c) Jerry Downs, some rights reserved (CC BY-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/25249891@N00/2149245135
- (c) 2013 Patricia Holroyd, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=433067&one=T
- (c) Picasa, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://lh6.ggpht.com/-n47pbvdoNhQ/UKGQyvGuSUI/AAAAAAAARtg/fkiLr-z0w90/P1140103.JPG
- (c) Flickr, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8544/8677520969_b247d9ba08_o.jpg
- (c) Charles R Berenguer Jr, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Charles R Berenguer Jr
- Dewhurst, Donna, no known copyright restrictions (public domain), https://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/20934.jpg
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certhia_americana
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/31384963
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/31384965
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/31384964
- (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28916758
