The Brown Creeper

One of the more unusual birds that visits our yard on a yearly basis is the Brown Creeper.  Brown Creepers migrate to the Omaha area during the winter months.  The ones in our yard usually appear on either our ash tree or on the wood of our overhang in the back of the house.  The first time I saw one, I almost mistook it for a mouse, because of the rapid way in which it moved up and down on the tree so rapidly.

Years ago, I had hung a suet feeder on our ash tree, but I never saw the Brown Creepers go anywhere near it.  Their primary interest has always been the insects.  During the winter months, they burrow beneath the bark to extract the bugs they want to eat.

Brown Creepr Burrowing for Insects (photo by SCB)

I think the primary reason we see Brown Creepers here during the winters is because we live in a heavily wooded area.  Some of the other birds that visit our yard only in winter include the red-breasted nuthatch and even redpolls.

If you would like to attract Brown Creepers to your backyard, the primary way in which to do so is to have mature trees.  Sometimes this is more easily said than done...for years, the ash tree in our backyard was a favored spot for many birds, some of which ate the bugs living in it and some of which nested in it. Unfortunately, as the tree aged, it sustained a great deal of damage, to the point that eventually we had to have it cut down to a stump.

After the tree was cut so low, I was under the impression that it was dead, and was planning to have it taken out completely in the spring.  To my amazement, when spring finally came, the tree began to sprout again, and is now a small, bushy tree that actually provides quite a bit of shade.  It also has again become a favorite spot for many birds, which like to perch in its branches and explore it for food.  When the Brown Creepers came back last winter, they were still as interested in it as they had been when it was a bigger tree, and seemed to find just as many insects in it.

Brown Creeper Hunting for Insects (photo by SCB)

All of this led me to the conclusion that as troublesome as trees may be, they serve an extremely important purpose, especially for the birds who live in our area.  Unattractive as my ash tree may be in comparison to how it looked before, it continues to be attractive to many birds, and obviously still serves an important purpose as they continue to return to it, year after year.