Brown Creeper

Certhia americana

The Brown Creepers have an appearance very reminiscent of a wren, but their behaviour is more like a nuthatch. These birds range across most of temperate North America in mature, coniferous forests. We usually observe nuthatches climbing down tree trunks. Because Brown Creepers need to use their tail as a brace, they are not suited for downward movement, and always climb up the trees. They are adorned with cryptic patterning on their backs. This provides them with a marvelous ability to virtually disappear against tree-bark.

There are 13 recognized subspecies of Brown Creepers. Most of the birds I have met I believe to be C. a. occidentalis, but the birds I met at Madera Canyon in Arizona appear to be a different subspecies, probably C. a. montana.

The full list of subspecies follows:

• C. a. americana breeds from Saskatchewan east to Newfoundland and south to Minnesota east to West Virginia.
• C. a. nigrescens lives in Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina.
• C. a. montana lives in Rockies from British Columbia and Alberta east to South Dakota and south Arizona and Texas.
• C. a. alascensis breeds in southern Alaska, and spends winter in Idaho and south to Arizona and New Mexico.
• C. a. occidentalis lives west of the Coast Ranges and Cascades, from Alaska south to northern California.
• C. a. stewarti lives on Queen Charlotte Island in British Columbia (Canada).
• C. a. phillipsi lives in Coast Ranges of central California from San Francisco, south to San Luis Obispo County.
• C. a. zelotes lives east of the Cascades from Oregon south through the Sierra Nevada, Inyo Mountains, southern California and in the inner Coast Ranges of northern California.
• C. a. leucosticta lives in southern Nevada and western-central Utah.
• C. a. albescens lives in Arizona and New Mexico south through western mountains of Mexico to the states in southern Mexico.
• C. a. alticola lives in the volcanic ranges of southern Mexico.
• C. a. pernigra lives in the highlands of southern Mexico and northern Central America.
• C. a. extima lives in Central America.

Aside from the birds I met in Madera Canyon (Arizona) and coastal Oregon, all the Brown Creepers I have met have been in southern California.