Treecreeper

Wood whisperer, bird mouse

It’s a sweet moment when you find yourself next to a tree as a piece of the bark appears to detach itself and shift expertly upwards. 

Some 40% bird, 60% mouse, treecreepers like to begin their ascent close to the base of their chosen tree. From there they move in a corkscrew pattern around and upwards, not too high, before dropping back down and across to an adjacent trunk. 

Their vocalisations are fine and whispery. The high-pitched ‘seeee seeee seeee’ contact call is often given as they creep their way through woodland. This sounds similar to a number of other bird calls, and is a tricky one to be confident about. 

The song is more distinctive, made up of a descending, accelerating series of notes with a little flourish at the end. 

To my ear it’s a cross between willow warbler and chaffinch. It’s rather silvery, almost apologetic. 

This song can often be heard in woodland and parkland during the spring and early summer, but is easily lost among stronger sounds.

Another way to find treecreepers is by paying close attention to roving flocks of tits in the autumn and winter months.

Treecreepers don’t much like each other for company, but seem happy to team up with tits, goldcrests and chiffchaffs, with whom they work their way along a string of trees in a loose, motley crew. 

In these conditions, without too many leaves on the trees, it can be easier to see the warm brown streaking of their backs, their white underparts and their delicate, down-curved bill, which is so adept at teasing out insects from the bark that they climb. 

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Treecreepers may well be among the birds we will hear and see during a half-day walkshop event in Sussex on 15 July. More details on the Birdsong Academy website.

Media credits:

The recording on Soundcloud is by Paul Holt in Lancashire, and is reproduced with permission from the recording that can be found on xeno-canto.

Image by Mike Pennington reproduced under Creative Commons licence CC BY-SA 2.0