Certhia americana
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The brown creeper (Certhia americana), also known as the American treecreeper, is a small songbird, the only North American member of the treecreeper family Certhiidae. Adults are brown on the upper parts with light spotting, resembling a piece of tree bark, with white underparts. They have a long thin bill with a slight downward curve and a long stiff tail used for support as the bird creeps upwards. The male creeper has a slightly larger bill than the female. Brown creepers are smaller than white-breasted nuthatches but larger than golden-crowned kinglets.
Measurements: Length: 4.7–5.5 in (12–14 cm) Weight: 0.2–0.3 oz (5.7–8.5 g) Wingspan: 6.7–7.9 in (17–20 cm) Its voice includes single very high pitched, short, often insistent, piercing calls; see, or swee. The song often has a cadence like; pee pee willow wee or see tidle swee, with notes similar to the calls. Creepers in California have songs of four to nine syllables, except in the San Bernardino Mountains, where there are as many as nine to thirteen syllables per song, but within the same two second time frame.
This species's avoidance of edges, cryptic plumage, and high-pitched vocalizations contribute to... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 8 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Detroit | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Brown Creeper sighting in Shenandoah National Park on a given day, based on 193 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 98th most-seen of the 186 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October to March
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Brown Creeper in Shenandoah National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April to September, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Brown Creeper sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
27th of 32
Of the 32 parks where we can rate Brown Creeper sightings, Shenandoah National Park ranks 27th at under 5%. The best odds are in Yosemite National Park (United States, about 50%), Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (United States, about 40%) and Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca (Mexico, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Brown Creeper that you can see in Shenandoah National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Carolina Wren (about 70%), American Goldfinch (about 60%) and Northern Cardinal (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Brown Creeper is recorded against all the birds logged in Shenandoah National Park (193 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
