The name creeper, or treecreeper, applies to several species of bird that have adapted to the same food source. All have long, thin, curving toes for climbing, a thin, pointed, downward-curving bill for searching bark for insects, and an equally long and narrow tongue for extracting them. Creepers are most often seen scaling the trunk of a tree or moving along a branch, probing for food. Members of the family that includes the brown creeper, Certhia familiaris, pictured here, use their stiffened tail feathers as crutches when climbing.

CREEPERS, are any of a dozen species of small slender birds, with downcurved bills, that spiral up tree trunks in search of insects. That are variously classified in the families Certhiidae and Climacteridae, and are any of various small birds that hug tree trunks or rock surfaces as they move about while feeding. The following are songbirds (suborder Passeres; order Passeriformes):

The six species of the genus Certhia constitute the family Certhiidae (order Passeriformes). The best known is C. familiaris, a 13-centimetre- (5-inch-) long streaky brown-and-white bird found in woodlands across the Northern Hemisphere; it is known as treecreeper in Europe and brown creeper in North America. Its tail is stiffened and serves as a prop against the tree. Its nest, a soft cup within a mass of rootlets, is usually placed behind a slab of bark and contains three to nine eggs.

"Brown Creeper," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 96 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1995 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.