The Brown Creepers 
Description. — Adults: Above brownish black, varied by rusty brown, broadly 
and loosely streaked with ashy white; more finely and narrowly streaked on crown; 
rump bright reddish brown (argus brown to russet); wing-quills crossed by two pale 
ochraceous buffy bars, one on both webs near base (white on inner web), the other on 
outer webs alone; greater coverts, secondaries, and tertials tipped with whitish or 
grayish buff; tail graduated, fuscous with pale brown shafts; a narrow superciliary 
stripe dull whitish or brownish gray; underparts white, pure on throat, becoming sordid 
posteriorly, tinged on sides and flanks with dull brownish gray; crissum ochraceous 
buff. Bill slender, decurved, brownish black above, paler below; feet and legs brown; 
iris dark brown. Length of adult male about 139.7 (5.50); wing 63.5 (2.50); tail 60.8 
(2.39); bill 16 (.63); tarsus 15 (.59). Female a little smaller. 
Recognition Marks. —Warbler size; singularly variegated in modest colors 
above; the only brown creeper in its range. Blacker above and whiter below than the 
next form. 
Nesting.— Nest: Of twigs, bark-strips, moss, plant-down, etc.; crowded behind a 
warping scale of bark, whether of cedar, pine, or fir. Eggs: Usually 5 or 6, sometimes 
7 or 8; white or creamy white, speckled and spotted with cinnamon-brown or hazel, 
chiefly in wreath about larger end. Av. size 15.5 x 11.4 (.61 x .45). Season: May-June; 
one brood. 
Range of Certhia familiaris. —The greater part of Northern Hemisphere, except 
Africa. 
Range of C. f. zelotes. —The Cascade-Sierra Mountain system, broadly, in Oregon 
and California, and south to the Cuyamaca Mountains, retiring regularly to adjacent 
lowlands in winter. 
Distribution in California. —Common resident in Canadian and Transition 
zones throughout the Sierra Nevada and associated ranges, south to the southern border 
of the State; also west along the inner northern coastal ranges, and in the pine belt of the 
San Rafael group. Winters irregularly and sparingly at the lower levels, e. g., Santa 
Barbara and the Mohave Desert. 
Authorities.—Woodhouse (Certhia familiaris), in Sitgreaves' Rep. Expl. Zuni 
and Colorado Rivers, 1853, p. 66, part (Calif.); Barlow, Condor, vol. ii., 1900, p. 59 
(Eldorado Co., breeding; desc. nest and eggs); Osgood, Auk, vol. xviii, 1901, p. 182 
(orig. desc.; Battle Creek, Tehama Co.); Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zook, vol. v., 1908, 
p. 120 (San Bernardino Mts.; desc. nest and eggs, habits, etc.). 
No. 131b California Creeper 
A. O. U. No. 726c. Certhia familiaris occidentalis Ridgway. 
Synonym. —Tawny Creeper. 
Description. —“Similar to C. f. zelotes, but browner and more suffused with 
buffy above; wing markings more pronouncedly buff; underparts more buffy’’ (Ridg¬ 
way); also rusty of rump averaging brighter (light amber-brown). Length of male: 
wing 61.9 (2.44); tail 61.2 (2.41); bill 15.2 (.60); tarsus 15.5 (.61). 
Nesting. — Nest: As in preceding; placed behind sprung bark scale, preferably of 
fir or redwood, and usually at moderate heights—3 to 20 feet up (one record of 60). 
Inner diameter of one nest inches, depth 2 ) 4 . Eggs: 5 or 6; as in C.f. zelotes. Sea¬ 
son: May-June; two broods. 
Range of C.f. occidentalis. —The Northwest Pacific coastal strip, broadly in the 
north, to Sitka, Alaska, narrowly in the south to Monterey County, California. 
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