Brown Creeper

Brown Creepers breed from Alaska acorss southern Canada south through most of the Great Lakes states and across much of the northeastern United States. They also breed through the Rocky mountains to Nicaragua and down our Pacific Coast states. Only a few areas of the United States lack Brown Creepers in the winter. Poulin et al. (2013) write that this species is “one of the continent's most inconspicuous songbirds.” Erika often calls creepers “tree lice.”

We photographed this Brown Creeper near Olympia on 20 April 2019. Creepers are most common in mature forests that contain both healthy and dead timber. They use the dead wood for nesting and live trees for foraging. Wintering birds use almost any wooded area. Populations have increased duirng recent years due to reforestation along with trees dying from insect outbreaks. Outright habitat loss, however, is a threat to this bird.