Brown Treecreeper

Overview

The brown treecreeper (Climacteris picumnus) is the largest of the Australasian treecreepers and is endemic to eastern Australia. It occupies a broad range across New South Wales and Victoria, extending from Cape York in Queensland to South Australia.

Identification

• Adult plumage is light grey-brown above with a light grey face and neck, a darker grey crown, and dark ear-coverts.
• A prominent pale supercilium distinguishes adults, whereas this marking is grey and indistinct on juveniles.
• Sexes differ in breast streaking, with males displaying black and white streaks and females showing rufous and white streaks on the upper breast.
• The bird produces a call described as a 'spink spink'.

Habitat

Found in a diverse range of environments from coastal forests to mallee shrub-lands, the species often occupies eucalypt-dominated woodlands up to 1,000 metres in elevation. It typically avoids areas with a dense shrubby understorey.

Diet

Foraging during the day on the ground and tree surfaces, the bird feeds mainly on ants, beetles, and insect larvae. It probes fissures, cracks, and hollows of trees while hopping along logs or spiralling up rough-barked trunks, though it occasionally consumes nectar.

Did you know?

Nests are constructed by the entire social group using a mixture of twigs, grass, leaves, bark, dung, and animal fur, and have occasionally included human refuse such as aluminium foil. In one recorded instance, a bird collected fur directly from a live possum.