A pair of brown creepers returned to our central Missouri neighborhood this week and will be observed on occasion throughout the colder months. After nesting in the Northwoods of Canada, southern Alaska and the Great Lakes region and southward through the Appalachians and Western mountains, these small, slender birds leave their coniferous homeland to winter in mixed woods throughout much of the U.S.
Commonly encountered in parks and suburban areas, brown creepers favor areas with large trees where they circle up the trunk, searching for hibernating insects and spiders. Nearing the top of the trunk or one of its major branches, they fly to the base of another tree and begin to climb and search once again, picking through the bark with their curved bill. During their winter visit, creepers may also turn up at suet feeders and frequently join mixed flocks of chickadees, titmice and downy woodpeckers in the barren woods.
Resembling pieces of bark themselves, brown creepers are monogamous during the breeding season and often suspend their nest behind a piece of loose bark; both parents take part in raising the young. Come autumn, the family members go their separate ways, some remaining in their summer range while others travel hundreds of miles across the lowlands of North America. Known to winter in flocks on occasion, creepers are (in my experience) most often seen alone or in pairs.
