Eurasian Treecreeper

How to recognise it

• Curved bill and bark-coloured brown upperparts, finely patterned in black, buff and white
• White underparts with a buff tone on the belly, flanks and vent
• White eyebrow and long stiff tail feathers in plain brown
• Sexes alike, juveniles duller with fine dark spots on the flanks

Call and song

The contact call is a very quiet, thin, high "sit". The most distinctive call is a piercing "tsri", sometimes repeated in a series. The male's song starts with "srrih, srrih", followed by twittering, a falling ripple and a whistle that falls and then rises. The short phrase recalls calls of Blue Tit and Willow Warbler.

Where and when

In Sweden the Eurasian Treecreeper is common in coniferous and mixed forest across most of the country and is reported from all 21 counties. It prefers mature trees and also occurs in parks and large gardens. It is reported most in November to February. The population was estimated in 2018 at about 1.1 million pairs, and it is not red-listed in the Swedish Red List 2025.

Food and behaviour

With its long thin bill it pulls insects and spiders out of cracks in the bark, and in colder months it may eat conifer seeds. It hops up the trunk like a mouse, braced on its tail, then flies to the base of another tree. It is not shy, sometimes joins tit flocks in winter and in cold weather a dozen or more may roost together in a sheltered hole.