Where's Waldo?
March 10th, 2010
Arguably Canada's most well-camouflaged bird: the Brown Creeper.
Having taken about twenty shots in rapid succession, I managed to catch a profile view of this guy: a rare occasion when a creeper was somewhere other than plastered to the bark of a tree, and virtually invisible.
Creepers are another year-round species. I log most of my sightings of them in winter and early spring, when they wander in diverse habitats in search of food. Like nuthatches they're little birds that creep along tree trunks and branches, probing the bark for food. (They survive in winter thanks to the presence of hibernating insects.) Unlike nuthatches, they can't climb back down; instead, having reached the top of one tree, they fly to the bottom of the next one and spiral up again. The presence of a creeper is announced--if you're lucky--by a faint high-pitched call, similar to a chickadee tweet, but more high-pitched and drawn out.
This is what a Brown Creeper sighting usually looks like:
March 10th, 2010
Arguably Canada's most well-camouflaged bird: the Brown Creeper.
Having taken about twenty shots in rapid succession, I managed to catch a profile view of this guy: a rare occasion when a creeper was somewhere other than plastered to the bark of a tree, and virtually invisible.
Creepers are another year-round species. I log most of my sightings of them in winter and early spring, when they wander in diverse habitats in search of food. Like nuthatches they're little birds that creep along tree trunks and branches, probing the bark for food. (They survive in winter thanks to the presence of hibernating insects.) Unlike nuthatches, they can't climb back down; instead, having reached the top of one tree, they fly to the bottom of the next one and spiral up again. The presence of a creeper is announced--if you're lucky--by a faint high-pitched call, similar to a chickadee tweet, but more high-pitched and drawn out.
This is what a Brown Creeper sighting usually looks like:
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