Males tend to have a slightly longer bill (1 to 2 mm longer) than females. Their decurved bills are one of the only ways to differentiate between the sexes. Male and female brown creepers are very similar in appearance. A standard metabolic rate for brown creepers was measured at 4.0 kcal/24 hours. Their wing chords measure 62.9 to 65.5 mm. 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.īrown creepers are 11.7 to 13.5 cm long and weigh 7.2 to 9.9 g. The underparts are white with red/brown lightly mixed in. They have a distinctive brown stripe through their eye and a white stripe above it. They have dark-brown upperparts that are heavily streaked with white on the head, back, scapulars (feathers covering the shoulder), and wings. ( Hejl, et al., 2002)īrown creepers are tiny birds with mottled feathers that make them nearly indistinguishable from a piece of bark when viewed at a distance. In the Rocky Mountains, brown creepers are found more in older red cedars, spruce-fir, and mixed conifer rather than in younger forests. 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. They require large trees (dead or alive) for foraging and nesting. ( Hejl, et al., 2002)īrown creepers live in coniferous forests and mixed coniferous-deciduous forests. Brown creepers winter throughout most of the United States except for high mountain regions, the Great Basin, Sonoran Desert, southern Texas and Florida. However, brown creepers that breed in the northern part of the geographic range migrate south for the winter. 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.īrown creepers are year-round residents throughout much of their range. Limited surveys have been done to determine the northern limits of brown creepers.
In British Columbia, brown creepers breed along the western coast and through the central and southern interior. In Alaska and Canada, brown creepers generally breed along the coast. They are found throughout North America from Canada and Alaska to as far south as northern Nicaragua. Brown creepers ( Certhia americana) are the only treecreepers in North America.
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