Walking in the woods yesterday afternoon, I heard a loud “see” call. I thought it might be a White-throated Sparrow or even a Dark-eyed Junco but as I searched, I saw a little brown bird climbing up a White Pine. It flew over to the lower part of another tree and started climbing as I watched.

Brown Creepers blend in with the tree trunk and can be hard to spot.

Some of my friends have lost their upper range and can’t hear Brown Creepers but fortunately, in spite of being around jets and other planes, I can pick them out.  It helps because they can be really tough to see.  You sometimes can pick them up when they fly or if they expose their white belly.

Getting a look at the white belly helps spotting these elusive birds.

They seem to be oblivious to birders and once you pick them up, it’s fun to watch them spiral their way up a tree, picking bugs out of the bark with their curved beak.  They seem to balance like a woodpecker with their long tail as the work on a stubborn piece of bark.  Every so often, I’ve seen one going up as a White-breasted Nuthatch works its way down.  We have quite a few Brown Creepers in our woods – they are one of species that hangs around so I look forward to their antics this winter.  They are one my favorite birds.

Brown Creeper (top image) by Wildreturn    Lower image by David-Mitchell

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