If you see a small piece of bark falling off the top of a tree and then – just before it hits the ground – you see the bark swooping up and attaching itself to the base of another tree, you’re not seeing gravity defied. You’re seeing an elusive little bird that, unfortunately, is named the brown creeper. This full-time resident here is less than six inches long and is camouflaged to look like tree bark. And, it doesn’t creep up on victims.
This bird hops spritely up a furrowed tree trunk in barber-pole-like spirals. When it gets near the top, it flutters to the base of another tree to begin the process again. It’s hunting for insects and larvae hidden in the bark, but it’s not a woodpecker; it’s more of a “woodpryer.”
The brown creeper uses its stiff tail and long-nailed feet to position itself securely on a tree trunk and then pries its prey out of crevices with its curved beak. The nails on its feet, especially the rear nails, are exceptionally long and sharp to grab the bark firmly.
(Leighton Archive images taken in Brooklin, Maine, shown here.)