Brown Creeper

About the Brown Creeper

The Brown Creeper is a bird that has perfected the art of being overlooked. Streaked brown above and white below, it presses tight against tree trunks and spirals upward in little hitching climbs, probing bark crevices with its thin, curved bill. When it reaches the top, it drops to the base of the next tree and starts again.

Its camouflage is so good that the surest way to find one is to catch a flake of bark that seems to be moving uphill. The thin, high song and call notes are often the only giveaway.

This creeper was working the conifers in Dog Canyon, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, where the cool high-elevation forest feels more like the Rockies than Texas.