TREE CREEPER 



Certhia famihans 



HIS unassuming little bird is a resident in our Islands, and 

 is pretty generally distributed throughout most wooded 

 districts. It is occasionally recorded from the Orkneys 

 and Shetlands, but apparently does not wander to the 

 Outer Hebrides. 



From its retiring habits and the quiet colour of its 

 plumage, the Tree Creeper is a bird which is very often 



overlooked. Its home is in the woods, and it is perhaps most abundantly 

 distributed in old forests where there are large trees, many of them very old 

 and much decayed, for on these old trees is found the greatest abundance of 

 insect food. It is often seen on the trees in the garden or on the large 

 beeches which are dotted about in some park ; but these are only occasionally 

 visited in quest of food, for the Creeper's haunts are in the depths of the 

 woods. 



The Tree Creeper has the stiff, pointed tail-feathers of a Woodpecker, 

 which are of the greatest service in ascending the perpendicular trunks of 

 trees. The tail is pressed against the bark, and is used as a sort of prop. 

 How quickly the little bird can ascend the rough moss-covered bark of the 

 trees, stopping every now and then to capture some insect or to pick out 

 some tiny grub from the crevices in the bark ! Notice, too, how quickly it 

 disappears round the other side of the trunk on your slightest movement, 

 gradually working its way up to the top of the tree, when it flies off to the 

 bottom of the next one, to resume its quest for food. Now and then the 

 Creeper may be seen on the ground searching among the dead leaves at the 

 foot of some tree, or hopping about on some pile of pea-sticks, and may 

 sometimes be seen bathing in the little pools of water lying in some cart- 

 track through the woods. During the winter almost every flock of Tits which 

 VOL, in. 2 H 117 



