Species: Certhia americana

Brown Creeper

Species

Birds

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Terrestrial vertebrates: birds

Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

Articles:

Marine and terrestrial bird indicators for Puget Sound

December 01, 2013

A December 2013 report identifies marine and terrestrial bird species for use as indicators within the Puget Sound Partnership's "Vital Signs" for ecosystem health.

Black Scoter (Melanitta nigra). Photo by Dave Menke, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Classification

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Craniata

Class

Aves

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Certhiidae

Genus

Certhia

NatureServe

Source:
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.102429

Classification

Other Global Common Names

Trepador Americano - grimpereau brun

Informal Taxonomy

Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Perching Birds

Formal Taxonomy

Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Passeriformes - Certhiidae - Certhia - ) (AOU 1998).

Ecology and Life History

Short General Description

Small, bark-gleaning songbird.

Migration

true - true - true - 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).

Non-migrant

true

Locally Migrant

true

Food Comments

Creepers feed on arthropods gleaned off the surface and in the crevices of tree bark. They feed primarily on the main trunk of trees, moving from bottom to top, almost invariably forward and upward, and then flying to a low point on the next tree when branch density begins to restrict their movement (Willson 1970). Willson (1970) found that brown creepers in southern Illinois had highly specialized feeding behavior. Among a group of six bird species that all fed on insects from tree trunk or branch gleaning, creepers were the most specialized to feeding site in terms of tree structure in both winter and spring. While they favored oaks and maple in winter, and hackberry in spring, they also used several other species fairly equally in spring (i.e. they were less fussy about tree species in spring) (Willson 1970). Eats mainly insects and other invertebrates, including immature stages, obtained from bark of tree trunks and branches; also eats some nuts and seeds (Terres 1980).

Reproduction Comments

Four to eight eggs, most commonly five or six, are laid (Bent 1948, Davis 1978). Incubation begins once the entire clutch is laid (Davis 1978). Incubation lasts 14 to 17 days, but 15 is apparently most common (Davis 1978). Young fledge in 15 to 16 days, and are fed by both parents for about two more weeks. Davis (1978) found that 58% of nests with at least one egg or nestling (out of 19 observed) succeeded in fledging young. Survival rates, calculated from a total of 94 eggs laid were 60% from laying to hatching, and 94% from hatching to fledging, or 52% overall (from laying to fledging).

Ecology Comments

Territories ranged from 2.3 to 6.4 ha in a study in Michigan (Davis 1978). Rough approximations of density, calculated from maps of nest locations at the study sites in Davis (1978) yielded these figures for three study sites: two ha per pair, and 1.5 ha per pair for two areas of swamp forest habitat; 5.6 ha per pair in a more upland site. In the latter area, nests were close to streams, so that the area of appropriate habitat may have been smaller than the overall study area, and 5.6 ha per pair may be exaggerated by the inclusion of inappropriate habitat away from streams. Few observations of predators appear in the literature. One incidence of a creeper chased (but not captured) by a northern shrike is recounted in Bent (1948). Creepers are known to respond defensively to the scream of a hawk (Bent 1948, Davis 1978). NON-BREEDING: Bent (1948) reported that creepers are quite solitary, but there have been reports of communal roosting and huddling in winter. Fledglings roost in a characteristic huddle (Davis 1978, Ryser 1985). They were reported to move in mixed-species flocks in the winter in Louisiana, Maryland, and in summer in Maine (Morse 1970). In Louisiana, they were nearly always observed in mixed-species flocks in winter rather than singly (Morse 1970).

Length

Weight

Conservation Status

NatureServe Global Status Rank

Global Status Last Reviewed

2008-01-14

Global Status Last Changed

1996-12-02

Other Status

LC - Least concern

Distribution

Conservation Status Map

Global Range

H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - Breeding range extends from southcentral Alaska across Canada to southcentral Quebec and Newfoundland; south to southern California, southern Nevada, central and southeastern Arizona; in the mountains of Middle America through Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras to north-central Nicaragua; to western Texas, southeastern Nebraska, southern Iowa, southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois, southern Michigan, southern Ontario, central Ohio, West Virginia; in the Appalachians to western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee; and to lowlands of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware (AOU 1998). During the nonbreeding season, the range extends from southern coastal Alaska and southern Canada southward throughout the breeding range, except higher latitudes and elevations, to southern Texas, the Gulf Coast, and northern Florida, and to lowlands of the western United States and northern Mexico (AOU 1998). The species is resident in the Queen Charlotte Islands and in mountains from southeastern Arizona and southwest New Mexico south to Nicaragua (AOU 1998).

Global Range Code

Global Range Description

>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)

ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.102429