When a sharp-shinned hawk crashes the scene everyone dives for cover like it s a police raid. But after a short while a brave chickadee decides its time for another sunflower seed and the band strikes up again. But the brown creeper will have none of it. Oh, it s been invited, but it could care less. I m not even sure they know that the feeders are there.
Creepers are loner-types, content to live in our woodlands by themselves.
They are common in our area during migration, although one would hardly know it. Many stay through the winter, a little surprise to look for when exploring the winter woods. Brown creepers are the only member of the family Certhiidae, the tree-creepers, in all of North America. They are small brownish birds with down-curved beaks designed to pick insects from tree bark. They cling to tree trunks, and when feeding they inch upwards from the base of a tree, bracing themselves with stiff tail feathers as they go.