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The Eurasian treecreeper or common treecreeper (''Certhia familiaris'') is a small
passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
also known in the
British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...
, where it is the only living member of its genus, simply as treecreeper. It is similar to other treecreepers, and has a curved bill, patterned brown upperparts, whitish underparts, and long stiff tail feathers which help it creep up tree trunks. It can be most easily distinguished from the similar
short-toed treecreeper The short-toed treecreeper (''Certhia brachydactyla'') is a small passerine bird found in woodlands through much of the warmer regions of Europe and into north Africa. It has a generally more southerly distribution than the other European Certhi ...
, which shares much of its
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an range, by its different song. The Eurasian treecreeper has nine or more subspecies which breed in different parts of its range in the
Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...
. This species is found in woodlands of all kinds, but where it overlaps with the short-toed treecreeper in western Europe it is more likely to be found in
conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...
ous forests or at higher altitudes. It nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes, and favours introduced
giant sequoia ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (also known as the giant sequoia, giant redwood, Sierra redwood or Wellingtonia) is a species of coniferous tree, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae. Giant sequoia specimens are the la ...
as nest sites where they are available. The female typically lays five or six pink-speckled white eggs in the lined nest, but eggs and chicks are vulnerable to attack by woodpeckers and mammals, including squirrels. The Eurasian treecreeper is
insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores we ...
and climbs up tree trunks like a mouse, to search for insects which it picks from crevices in the bark with its fine curved bill. It then flies to the base of another tree with a distinctive erratic flight. This bird is solitary in winter, but may form communal roosts in cold weather.


Description

Similar in appearance, all treecreepers are small birds with streaked and spotted brown upperparts, rufous rumps and whitish underparts. They have long decurved bills, and long rigid tail feathers that provide support as they creep up tree trunks looking for insects. The Eurasian treecreeper is long and weighs 7.0–12.9  g (0.25–0.46  oz). It has warm brown upperparts intricately patterned with black, buff and white, and a plain brown tail. Its belly, flanks and vent area are tinged with buff. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile has duller upperparts than the adult, and its underparts are dull white with dark fine spotting on the flanks. The contact call is a very quiet, thin and high-pitched ''sit'', but the most distinctive call is a penetrating , with a
vibrato Vibrato (Italian language, Italian, from past participle of "wikt:vibrare, vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch (music), pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. ...
quality, sometimes repeated as a series of notes. The male's song begins with followed in turn by a few twittering notes, a longer descending ripple, and a whistle that falls and then rises. The range of the Eurasian treecreeper overlaps with that of several other treecreepers, which can present local identification problems. In Europe, the Eurasian treecreeper shares much of its range with the short-toed treecreeper. Compared to that species, it is whiter below, warmer and more spotted above, and has a whiter
supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...
and slightly shorter bill. Visual identification, even in the hand, may be impossible for poorly marked birds. A singing treecreeper is usually identifiable, since short-toed treecreeper has a distinctive series of evenly spaced notes sounding quite different from the song of Eurasian treecreeper; however, both species have been known to sing the other's song. Three Himalayan subspecies of Eurasian treecreeper are now sometimes given full species status as
Hodgson's treecreeper Hodgson's treecreeper (''Certhia hodgsoni'') is a small passerine bird from the southern rim of the Himalayas. Its specific distinctness from the common treecreeper (''C. familiaris'') was recently validated. Description This is a small bird, ...
, for example by
BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...
, but if they are retained as subspecies of Eurasian, they have to be distinguished from three other South Asian treecreepers. The plain tail of the Eurasian treecreeper differentiates it from the
bar-tailed treecreeper The bar-tailed treecreeper (''Certhia himalayana''), or the Himalayan treecreeper is a species of bird in the family Certhiidae. It is found primarily in the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent, particularly in the Himalayas, as well as i ...
, which has a distinctive barred tail pattern, and its white throat is an obvious difference from that of the brown-throated treecreeper. The rusty-flanked treecreeper is more difficult to separate from the Eurasian, but the former has more contrasting cinnamon, rather than buff, flanks. The North American
brown creeper The brown creeper (''Certhia americana''), also known as the American treecreeper, is a small songbird, the only North American member of the treecreeper family Certhiidae. Description Adults are brown on the upper parts with light spotting, re ...
has never been recorded in Europe, but an autumn
vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...
would be difficult to identify, since it would not be singing, and the American species' call is much like that of Eurasian treecreeper. In appearance, the brown creeper is more like a short-toed treecreeper than a Eurasian one, but a vagrant might still not be possible to identify with certainty given the similarities between the three species.


Taxonomy

The Eurasian treecreeper was first described under its current scientific name in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
in the tenth edition of his ''
Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...
''. The
binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...
is derived from
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
''kerthios'', a small tree-dwelling bird described by
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
and others, and
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
''familiaris'', familiar or common. This species is one of a group of very similar typical treecreeper species, all placed in the single genus ''
Certhia '' Certhia '' is the genus of birds containing the typical treecreepers, which makes up the family Certhiidae. The typical treecreepers occur in many wooded parts of the North Temperate Zone. They do not normally migrate other than for local m ...
''. Eight species are currently recognised, in two
evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
ary lineages: a
Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...
radiation, and a southern Asian group. The Holarctic group has a more warbling song, always (except in ''C. familiaris'' from
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
) starting or ending with a shrill . Species in the southern group, in contrast, have a faster-paced trill without the sound. All the species have distinctive vocalizations and some subspecies have been elevated to species on the basis of their calls. The Eurasian treecreeper belongs to the northern group, along with the
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
n brown creeper, ''C. americana'', the short-toed treecreeper, ''C. brachydactyla'', of western Eurasia, and, if it is considered a separate species, Hodgson's treecreeper, ''C. hodgsoni'', from the southern rim of the
Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...
. The brown creeper has sometimes been considered to be a subspecies of Eurasian treecreeper, but has closer affinities to short-toed treecreeper, and is normally now treated as a full species. Hodgson's treecreeper is a more recent proposed split following studies of its cytochrome ''b''
mtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the DNA contained in ...
sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...
and song structure that indicate that it may well be a distinct species from ''C. familiaris''. There are nine to twelve subspecies of Eurasian treecreeper, depending on the taxonomic view taken, which are all very similar and often interbreed in areas where their ranges overlap. There is a general
cline Cline may refer to: Science * Cline (biology), a measurable gradient in a single trait in a species across its geographical range * Cline (hydrology), a fluid layer with a property that varies * Cline (mathematics) or generalised circle, a ci ...
in appearance from west to east across Eurasia, with subspecies becoming greyer above and whiter below, but this trend reverses east of the
Amur River The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur ''proper'' is ...
. The currently recognised subspecies are as follows:


Distribution and habitat

The Eurasian treecreeper is the most widespread member of its genus, breeding in temperate woodlands across the
Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...
from
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
to
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. It prefers mature trees, and in most of Europe, where it shares its range with short-toed treecreeper, it tends to be found mainly in
conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...
ous forest, especially
spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...
and
fir Firs are evergreen coniferous trees belonging to the genus ''Abies'' () in the family Pinaceae. There are approximately 48–65 extant species, found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Eurasia, and North Africa. The genu ...
. However, where it is the only treecreeper, as in European
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, or the
British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...
, it frequents broadleaved or mixed woodland in preference to conifers. It is also found in parks and large gardens. The Eurasian treecreeper breeds down to sea level in the north of its range, but tends to be a highland species further south. In the
Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...
it breeds above , in China from and in southern Japan from . The breeding areas have July isotherms between 14–16 °C and and 72–73 °F). 1411–1416 The Eurasian treecreeper is
non-migratory Bird migration is a seasonal movement of birds between breeding and wintering grounds that occurs twice a year. It is typically from north to south or from south to north. Animal migration, Migration is inherently risky, due to predation and ...
in the milder west and south of its breeding range, but some northern birds move south in winter, and individuals breeding on mountains may descend to a lower altitude in winter. Winter movements and post-breeding dispersal may lead to vagrancy outside the normal range. Wintering migrants of the Asian subspecies have been recorded in
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
and China, and the nominate form has been recorded west of its breeding range as far as
Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...
,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. The Eurasian treecreeper has also occurred as a vagrant to the
Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...
(where the short-toed is the resident species),
Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...
and the
Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...
.


Ecology and behaviour


Breeding

The Eurasian treecreeper breeds from the age of one year, nesting in tree crevices or behind bark flakes. Where present, the introduced North American
giant sequoia ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (also known as the giant sequoia, giant redwood, Sierra redwood or Wellingtonia) is a species of coniferous tree, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae. Giant sequoia specimens are the la ...
is a favourite nesting tree, since a nest cavity can be easily hollowed out in its soft bark. 394 Crevices in buildings or walls are sometimes used, and artificial nest boxes or flaps may be preferred in coniferous woodland. The nest has a base of twigs, pine needles, grass or bark, and a lining of finer material such as feathers, wool, moss,
lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...
or spider web. Certhia familiaris MWNH 1434.JPG, Eggs, Collection
Museum Wiesbaden The Museum Wiesbaden is a two-branch museum of Art museum, art and Natural history museum, natural history in the Hesse, Hessian capital of Wiesbaden, Germany. It is one of the three Hessian State museums, in addition to the museums in Hessian ...
Certhia familiaris familiaris MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.184.29.jpg, ''Certhia familiaris familiaris'' - MHNT Certhia familiaris brittanica MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.184.30.jpg, ''Certhia familiaris brittanica'' - MHNT
In Europe, the typical clutch of five–six eggs is laid between March and June, but in Japan three–five eggs are laid from May to July. The eggs are white with very fine pinkish speckles mainly at the broad end, measure and weigh of which 6% is shell. The eggs are incubated by the female alone for 13–17 days until the
altricial Precocial species in birds and mammals are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. They are normally nidifugous, meaning that they leave the nest shortly after birth or hatching. Altricial ...
downy chicks hatch; they are then fed by both parents, but brooded by the female alone, for a further 15–17 days to fledging. Juveniles return to the nest for a few nights after
fledging Fledging is the stage in a flying animal's life between hatching or birth and becoming capable of flight. This term is most frequently applied to birds, but is also used for bats. For altricial birds, those that spend more time in vulnerable c ...
. About 20% of pairs, mainly in the south and west, raise a second brood. Predators of treecreeper nests and young include the
great spotted woodpecker The great spotted woodpecker (''Dendrocopos major'') is a medium-sized woodpecker with pied black and white plumage and a red patch on the lower belly. Males and young birds also have red markings on the neck or head. This species is found acros ...
,
red squirrel The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris''), also called Eurasian red squirrel, is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus''. It is an arboreal and primarily herbivorous rodent and common throughout Eurasia. Taxonomy There have been ...
, and small mustelids, and predation is about three times higher in fragmented landscapes than in solid blocks of woodland (32.4% against 12.0% in less fragmented woodlands). The predation rate increases with the amount of forest edge close to a nest site, and also the presence of nearby agricultural land, in both cases probably because of a higher degree of mustelid predation. This species is parasitised in the nest by the
moorhen flea The moorhen flea (''Dasypsyllus gallinulae'') is a flea originating from South America. It is now globally widespread. It is a large flea, easily identified because the male has two heavy horn-like spines on one of the genital flaps, and the fema ...
, ''Dasypsyllus gallinulae''. The juvenile survival rate of this species is unknown, but 47.7% of adults survive each year. The typical lifespan is two years, but the maximum recorded age is eight years and ten months.


Feeding

The Eurasian treecreeper typically seeks
invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...
food on tree trunks, starting near the tree base and working its way up using its stiff tail feathers for support. Unlike a
nuthatch The nuthatches () constitute a genus, ''Sitta'', of small passerine birds belonging to the family Sittidae. Characterised by large heads, short tails, and powerful bills and feet, nuthatches advertise their territory using loud, simple songs. Mo ...
, it does not come down trees head first, but flies to the base of another nearby tree. It uses its long thin bill to extract
insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...
s and
spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...
s from crevices in the bark. Although normally found on trees, it will occasionally hunt prey items on walls, bare ground, or amongst fallen pine needles, and may add some conifer seeds to its diet in the colder months. The female Eurasian treecreeper forages primarily on the upper parts of the tree trunks, while the male uses the lower parts. A study in
Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
found that if a male disappears, the unpaired female will forage at lower heights, spend less time on each tree and have shorter foraging bouts than a paired female. This bird may sometimes join
mixed-species feeding flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These ar ...
s in winter, but it does not appear to share the resources found by accompanying tits and
goldcrest The goldcrest (''Regulus regulus'') is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family. Its colourful golden Crest (feathers), crest feathers, as well as being called the "king of the birds" in European folklore, gives rise to its Englis ...
s, and may just be benefiting from the extra vigilance of a flock.
Wood ants The ''Formica rufa'' group is a subgeneric group within the genus ''Formica'', first proposed by William Morton Wheeler. This group contains the mound-building species of ''Formica'' commonly termed "wood ants" or "thatch-mound ants", which build ...
share the same habitat as the treecreeper, and also feed on invertebrates on tree trunks. The Finnish researchers found that where the ants have been foraging, there are fewer
arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...
s, and male treecreepers spent a shorter time on spruce trunks visited by ants.


Habits

As a small woodland bird with cryptic plumage and a quiet call, the Eurasian treecreeper is easily overlooked as it hops mouse-like up a vertical trunk, progressing in short hops, using its stiff tail and widely splayed feet as support. Nevertheless, it is not wary, and is largely indifferent to the presence of humans. It has a distinctive erratic and undulating flight, alternating fluttering butterfly-like wing beats with side-slips and tumbles. Migrating birds may fly by day or night, but the extent of movements is usually masked by resident populations. It is solitary in winter, but in cold weather up to a dozen or more birds will roost together in a suitable sheltered crevice.


Conservation status

This species has an extensive range of about 10 million km2 (3.8 million square miles). It has a large population, including an estimated 11–20 million individuals in Europe alone. Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the
IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...
(declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern. It is common through much of its range, but in the northernmost areas it is rare, since it is vulnerable to hard winters, especially if its feeding is disrupted by an ice glaze on the trees or freezing rain. It is also uncommon in Turkey and the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
. In the west of its range it has spread to the
Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an Archipelago, island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islan ...
in Scotland, pushed further north in
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, and first bred in the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
in 1993.


References


External links


Eurasian treecreeper videos, photos & sounds
on the Internet Bird Collection.
Article on the identification of common and short-toed treecreepers
(in German with an English summary)
Information and Illustration on European Tree Creeper from A Field Guide to Birds of Armenia
{{Taxonbar, from=Q193593 Certhia Birds of Eurasia Birds described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus