Short-toed Treecreeper

All the treecreepers are similar in appearance, being small birds with streaked and spotted brown upperparts, rufous rumps and whitish underparts. They have long decurved bills, and long stiff tail feathers which provide support as they creep up tree trunks looking for insects. The short-toed treecreeper is 12.5 centimetres (4.9 inches) long and weighs 7.5–11 g (0.26–0.39 oz). It has dull grey-brown upperparts intricately patterned with black, buff and white, a weak off-white supercilium and dingy underparts contrasting with the white throat. The sexes are similar, but juveniles have whitish underparts, sometimes with a buff belly. The call of this species is a repeated shrill tyt...tyt tyt-tyt and the song of the nominate subspecies is an evenly spaced sequence of notes teet-teet-teet-e-roi-tiit. There is some geographical variation; the song of Danish birds is shorter, that of the Cyprus subspecies is very short and simple, and the North African version is lower pitched. European birds do not respond to latter two song variants. This species shares much of its range with the common treecreeper. Compared to the short-toed, that bird is whiter below, warmer and more spotted above, and has a whiter supercilium and slightly shorter bill. However, identification by sight may be impossible for poorly-marked birds. …

The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa. It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers. Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes. It is usually found in the lowlands, but breeds locally at up to 900 metres (3,000 feet) in Germany, 1,800 metres (5,900 feet) in France and 1,400 metres (4,600 feet) in Switzerland. In Turkey and North Africa it is a mountain species. The breeding areas have July isotherms between 17–18 °C and 26 °C (63–64 °F and 79 °F). This treecreeper is essentially non-migratory but post-breeding dispersal may lead to vagrancy outside the normal range. It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden (where it is now a breeding bird), Lithuania and the Balearic Islands. Three birds on Corsica in 1969 appeared to be of the North African subspecies C. b. mauritanica.

The short-toed treecreeper typically seeks invertebrate food on tree trunks, starting near the tree base and spiralling its way up using its stiff tail feathers for support. Unlike a nuthatch, 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 insects and spiders from crevices in the bark. Although normally found on trees, it will occasionally feed on walls or bare ground, or amongst fallen pine needles. It may add some seeds to its diet in the colder months.