Creeper

The Brown Creeper (Certhia americana) is rare in Brooklyn because its habitat is woodlands. This particular fast-moving specimen challenged my photography skills recently in Prospect Park, characteristically circling up tree trunks and branches in a hopping-like motion as it searched for invertebrate prey. The bird’s down-curved bill and stiff tail-feathers help keep it close to the bark.The bird will often fly to the bottom of a tree and work its way up, then down again to another tree and so on. They need 4-10 kilocalories (which is a “calorie” to the diet-watcher; by a curious editorial fiat somewhere along the line, we lost all those kilos…) a day. Their plumage is cryptic and bark-like, and they often nest behind loose flaps of bark. Here on the east coast, they breed from Newfoundland to Virginia, but there are no recent records of nesting in Brooklyn itself. They do find woods further west on the long island conducive to nesting, though.