CDC Logo

BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary


Certhia americana
Brown Creeper

 
Scientific Name: Certhia americana Bonaparte, 1838
English Name: Brown Creeper
 
Classification / Taxonomy
Scientific Name - Concept Reference: American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Classification Level: Species
Species Group: Vertebrate Animal
Species Code: B-BRCR
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family
Animalia Craniata Aves Passeriformes Certhiidae
   
Conservation Status / Legal Designation
Global Status: G5 (Apr 2016)
Provincial Status: S5 (Mar 2015)
BC List: Yellow
Provincial FRPA list:   
Provincial Wildlife Act:
COSEWIC Status:
SARA Schedule:
General Status Canada: 4 - Secure (2005)
Migratory Bird Convention Act: Y
   
Ecology & Life History
General Description:
Global Reproduction Comments: Four to eight eggs, most commonly five or six, are laid (Bent 1948, Davis 1978). Incubation begins once the entire clutch is laid (Davis 1978). Incubation lasts 14 to 17 days, but 15 is apparently most common (Davis 1978). Young fledge in 15 to 16 days, and are fed by both parents for about two more weeks.

Davis (1978) found that 58% of nests with at least one egg or nestling (out of 19 observed) succeeded in fledging young. Survival rates, calculated from a total of 94 eggs laid were 60% from laying to hatching, and 94% from hatching to fledging, or 52% overall (from laying to fledging).
Global Ecology Comments: Territories ranged from 2.3 to 6.4 ha in a study in Michigan (Davis 1978). Rough approximations of density, calculated from maps of nest locations at the study sites in Davis (1978) yielded these figures for three study sites: two ha per pair, and 1.5 ha per pair for two areas of swamp forest habitat; 5.6 ha per pair in a more upland site. In the latter area, nests were close to streams, so that the area of appropriate habitat may have been smaller than the overall study area, and 5.6 ha per pair may be exaggerated by the inclusion of inappropriate habitat away from streams.

Few observations of predators appear in the literature. One incidence of a creeper chased (but not captured) by a northern shrike is recounted in Bent (1948). Creepers are known to respond defensively to the scream of a hawk (Bent 1948, Davis 1978).

NON-BREEDING: Bent (1948) reported that creepers are quite solitary, but there have been reports of communal roosting and huddling in winter. Fledglings roost in a characteristic huddle (Davis 1978, Ryser 1985). They were reported to move in mixed-species flocks in the winter in Louisiana, Maryland, and in summer in Maine (Morse 1970). In Louisiana, they were nearly always observed in mixed-species flocks in winter rather than singly (Morse 1970).
Migration Characteristics:
(Global / Provincial)		 
    Nonmigrant:
    Local Migrant:
    Distant Migrant:
    Within Borders Migrant: 		Y /
Y /
Y /
na /
Global Migration Comments: South of a line from southeastern British Columbia, North Dakota, Minnesota, Ontario, to Nova Scotia, are year round residents and do not migrate. In the mountains of the west they undertake altitudinal seasonal migrations, moving down into the foothills and valleys during the winter (Ryser 1985). In the vicinity of Bozeman, Montana, elevational movements occur Feb 20 to Apr 20 and Sep 10 to Oct 30).
Habitats:
(Type / Subtype / Dependence) 		Anthropogenic / Urban/Suburban / Facultative - occasional use
Forest / Conifer Forest - Dry / Facultative - occasional use
Forest / Conifer Forest - Mesic (average) / Facultative - frequent use
Forest / Conifer Forest - Moist/wet / Facultative - frequent use
Forest / Mixed Forest (deciduous/coniferous mix) / Facultative - occasional use
Riparian / Riparian Forest / Facultative - frequent use
Global Habitat Comments: Preferred habitat includes forest, woodlands, forested floodplains and swamps. Scrub and parks are also used in winter and during migration. Most often found in coniferous and mixed forests. A study by Franzreb (1985) describes the habitat in Arizona as mixed-coniferous forest, dominated by Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine and southwestern white pine. Within the habitat, birds selected the largest (tallest) trees most often for foraging. Hejl (pers. comm.) reported finding larger numbers in western redcedar stands than in the Douglas-fir/ponderosa pine stands in 1992 field work.

In the eastern U.S. south of the northern conifer zone, populations occur regularly in forested floodplains, and sometimes swamps. Hamas (pers. comm.), based on his experience, suggested that floodplain forests may be important habitat in Michigan. Davis (1978) studied populations in Michigan in two different forest types. One was an old white cedar, balsam fir, and black spruce swamp, with components of sugar maple, red maple, white pine, basswood and paper birch. The other was more topographically varied and drier; tree species included red maple, American beech, with less common white oak, eastern hemlock, large-toothed aspen, butternut hickory, and American elm. In the wetter areas of this site, dead American elms were common, and in the wettest areas, white cedar and eastern hemlock occurred. Davis (1978) found that all nests were in dead trees, and all nest trees were near water. Two were in swamps, while all others were within 60 m of flowing streams.

A component of dead trees is essential for nesting, so brown creepers tend to be associated with older forests. Hejl and Woods (1991) found them in old growth forests (200+ yr), but never in rotation-aged (80 to 120 yr) Douglas- fir/ponderosa pine stands in western Montana and adjacent Idaho. The birds have also been known to move into areas where many trees have died due to flooding or disease (Bent 1948).

Temporary positive impacts have been created by Dutch elm and other forest diseases, and by artificial floodings in forested areas. Both diseases and floodings leave standing dead wood and create large numbers of good nesting sites. However, the suitability of the habitat is, of course, only temporary in these situations. Creepers have been reported to become abundant in such situations (Bent 1948, Davis 1978, Nicholson pers. comm.), suggesting a certain degree of opportunism. Forest, woodland, swamps; also scrub and parks in winter and migration. Negatively impacted by forest fragmentation in southern Wyoming (Keller and Anderson 1992).

Nests usually behind loose slab of bark still attached to living or dead tree, average of 1.5-5 m above ground (Harrison 1979). Also occasionally in knot holes when loose bark is not available (Bent 1948). One observer (Bent 1948) noted that nests were often under the only remaining piece of bark on a dead tree. Davis (1978) found that tree canopy was partially open at each nest site in a Michigan study.
Food Habits: Invertivore: Adult, Immature
Global Food Habits Comments: Creepers feed on arthropods gleaned off the surface and in the crevices of tree bark. They feed primarily on the main trunk of trees, moving from bottom to top, almost invariably forward and upward, and then flying to a low point on the next tree when branch density begins to restrict their movement (Willson 1970). Willson (1970) found that brown creepers in southern Illinois had highly specialized feeding behavior. Among a group of six bird species that all fed on insects from tree trunk or branch gleaning, creepers were the most specialized to feeding site in terms of tree structure in both winter and spring. While they favored oaks and maple in winter, and hackberry in spring, they also used several other species fairly equally in spring (i.e. they were less fussy about tree species in spring) (Willson 1970). Eats mainly insects and other invertebrates, including immature stages, obtained from bark of tree trunks and branches; also eats some nuts and seeds (Terres 1980).
Global Phenology: Diurnal: Adult, Immature
Provincial Phenology:
(1st half of month/
2nd half of month)
Colonial Breeder: N
Length(cm)/width(cm)/Weight(g): 13/ / 8
Elevation (m) (min / max): Global: 
Provincial: 
   
 
Distribution
Endemic: N
Global Range Comment: Breeding range extends from southcentral Alaska across Canada to southcentral Quebec and Newfoundland; south to southern California, southern Nevada, central and southeastern Arizona; in the mountains of Middle America through Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras to north-central Nicaragua; to western Texas, southeastern Nebraska, southern Iowa, southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois, southern Michigan, southern Ontario, central Ohio, West Virginia; in the Appalachians to western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee; and to lowlands of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware (AOU 1998). During the nonbreeding season, the range extends from southern coastal Alaska and southern Canada southward throughout the breeding range, except higher latitudes and elevations, to southern Texas, the Gulf Coast, and northern Florida, and to lowlands of the western United States and northern Mexico (AOU 1998). The species is resident in the Queen Charlotte Islands and in mountains from southeastern Arizona and southwest New Mexico south to Nicaragua (AOU 1998).
 
Authors / Contributors
Global Information Author: Hammerson, G.
Last Updated: Mar 17, 1994
Provincial Information Author:
Last Updated:
   
References and Related Literature
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
Bent, A.C. 1948. Life histories of North American nuthatches, wrens, thrashers, and their allies. U.S. National Museum Bulletin 195. Washington, DC.
Campbell, R.W., N.K. Dawe, I. McTaggart-Cowan, J.M. Cooper, G.W. Kaiser, M.C.E. McNall and G.E.J. Smith 1997. The Birds of British Columbia, Vol. 3, Passerines: Flycatchers through Vireos. UBC Press in cooperation with Environ. Can., Can. Wildl. Serv. and B.C. Minist. Environ., Lands and Parks, Wildl. Branch. 700pp.
Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
Harrison, H. H. 1979. A field guide to western birds' nests. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 279 pp.
Herkert, J. R., editor. 1992. Endangered and threatened species of Illinois: status and distribution. Vol. 2: Animals. Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board. iv + 142 pp.
Keller, M. E., and S. H. Anderson. 1992. Avian use of habitat configurations created by forest cutting in southeastern Wyoming. Condor 94:55-65.
Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
 

Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.

Suggested Citation:

B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 1994. Species Summary: Certhia americana. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Jun 10, 2026).