Winter is the best time of year to see my wife’s favorite bird, the Brown Creeper.  I found one in my backyard on the morning of New Year’s Day.  Creepers are sneaky little things.  They look like a little moving piece of bark and a have a very soft, high-pitched call.  Watch for them moving up along the trunks and large branches of trees (they don’t descend head-first like nuthatches).  After climbing high in a tree, they’ll often fly back to the base of the same tree, then work their way back up following a different route as they search for insects and spiders hiding in the bark.  The photo below shows a better view of what a creeper looks like.

There are nine species of creepers in the world, most called “treecreepers.”  Almost all treecreepers are found in Asia, with two species in Europe.  The Brown Creeper is the only species of creeper in all of North America.  Brown Creepers nest in a variety of forest habitats across North America, as far north as Alaska and Quebec, and as far south as mountainous parts of Central America.

Brown Creepers were actually the bird that inspired the invention of Bark Butter.  In addition to using Bark Butter on a feeder, you can spread it directly on tree trunks where creepers spend most of their time.  Bark Butter’s not just for creepers, though.  More birds have been seen eating Bark Butter than any other type of bird food – 161 species in the United States so far!