3/22/2010

Brown Creeper: A Completely Invisible Bird

brown creeper sudbury river
This is a Brown Creeper; a bird I am very excited about seeing and and very excited about adding to my lifelist. I've been keeping my eye out for one for almost a year without success.

creeper on tree
No wonder they are hard to find - they're virtually invisible! And they are TINY! Smaller than a nuthatch, thinner than a chickadee.

brown creeper sudbury river 2
They have a very distinctive curved bill. They also move very distinctly. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's ALL ABOUT BIRDS site, the Brown Creeper, "creeps along tree trunks, spiraling upward, picking invertebrates from the bark with its curved and pointed bill."

creeper open mouth
Check this out! Click here to view this photo larger, and see the bug in his mouth! He caught one!

creeper invisible
Perfect camouflage!

6 comments:

  1. Beautiful pictures. You have managed to capture this little bird in focus and with great clarity which is something I'm still trying to do. Good job.

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  2. Neat pictures! Brown Creepers are so fast. running around the tree, never holding still; so they hard to photograph, and you got them from all angles. Nicely done!

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  3. Wow! These are fantastic captures of a bird very hard to capture. (At least for me he is.) I love these fellows but don't get to see them nearly enough.

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  4. FABulous and impressive photos Susan. I love watching our Treecreepers but they are exceptionally difficult to capture. FAB.

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  5. Great discussion and fabulous pictures. I got a few good shots on Plum Island in Newbury earlier this year, but certain not as good as yours. Keep posting!

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  6. Wow Sue- these are great! I've never been able to capture a Brown Creeper (just some blurry, distant pics). Probably because they ARE so great at camouflaging.

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