The Treecreeper

I was clearing some wood behind the garage today when I spotted a very distinctive little bird creeping up and down a tree at the bottom of the garden. I've seen one before, so I was in no doubt that it was a treecreeper.

These are great little birds, about the size of a blue tit, which seem to hug the trunks of trees, and move up them almost magnetically. They mainly go around and up or down at the same time, and this one had a particular trick of going half way up the tree, then dropping to the ground, and then going up again in a different direction.

There are two known varieties of treecreeper. The treecreeper itself, and the short toed treecreeper. The short toed treecreeper does not inhabit the UK or Ireland; only some woodlands in continental Europe. They are extremely hard to distinguish by sight, but their call is different. On sight the main thing to look for is the zig zag bars on the back of the bird (as seen in yellow in the top photo). On the regular treecreeper they are more like rectangles, whereas on the short toed treecreeper they are said to be more jagged, like shark's teeth.

You can see how well camouflagued they are from a distance (as in below pic), with white, brown and grey they blend perfectly into woodland trees.

(RSPB Illustration)