Scientific Name: Certhia americana
Diet: Brown Creepers eat insects, spiders, spider eggs, and suet. They also eat some seeds, and different invertebrates.
Sound: The Brown Creeper’s song and call are both highly pitched. The song is 4 to 9 clearly warbled notes, and the call is a repeated seee! seee! seee!.
Habitat: Brown Creepers can be found mainly in mature coniferous forests, especially douglas fir in western Washington.
Nesting: The nest is made of strips of bark, spider egg cases, moss, leaves, and twigs. The female builds the nest, but the male brings the female nest material. Brown Creeper usually put their nests in crevices in trees and in peeling bark, but sometimes nest in cavities. They lay 5 to 6 eggs, and incubate them for 14 to 17 days. Both the male and the female feed the young.
Behavior: The Brown Creeper’s behavior is much like a Nuthatch’s. They start at the bottom of a tree trunk, and spiral up the trunk probing for insects the until they reach the top, where they fly to the bottom and spiral up again.
Description/field marks: Brown Creepers are about 5 inches long, and have wingspans of about 7 inches. They are very easy to overlook, because their backs, wings, and tails are mottled brown, much like the color of the tree bark. Brown Creepers have white undersides. They have long, down-curved bills, and their eyes are black. They also have very faint superciliums.
How to attract: Put out a suet feeder to attract Brown Creepers.