Finally – a bit of spring weather.

I didn’t expect to find many of our spring migrants yet, but still I was not disappointed when I heard the spring song of the brown creeper for the first time.

The individual that was singing might have been a resident here all winter, for certain populations of these birds are either year-round residents or short-distance migrants.

I didn’t see the bird – it was too far within the stand of spruce and fir trees – but its song reached me clearly. The “Birds of North America” series, a compilation of individual species accounts, waxes downright poetic when describing this cryptic little bird. Its song is described as “high and thin, but surprisingly rich and delicate,” and a scientist by the name of W.M. Tyler is quoted:

“The brown creeper, as he hitches along the bole of a tree, looks like a fragment of detached bark that is defying the law of gravitation by moving upward over the trunk, and as he flies off to another tree he resembles a little dry leaf blown about by the wind.”

This beautiful description is certainly apt. The speckled coloration of muted brown, gray, buff, and white camouflages it perfectly against the trunks of trees upon which it forages. It also has a unique and secretive nesting habit: it suspends its nest, hammock-like, behind peeling slabs of bark.

The creeper is about the size of the white-breasted nuthatch, but unlike the nuthatch, which has a short, rounded tail, the creeper has a longer tail that is forked and stiff, much like a woodpecker’s. This aids the bird as it forages on the trunks of trees (as woodpeckers do) for insects.

Another unique feature of this bird is its beak, which is long, slender, and slightly curved downward (or decurved). This adaptation allows the bird to probe easily around and underneath the bark for food.

This endearing little bird has an interesting foraging strategy. Starting at the base of a tree, it spirals up the trunk searching for food; once it gets to the top, it will fly to the base of another tree and start again. It does not climb headfirst down a tree like a nuthatch.

Because of its cryptic coloration, this bird is often hard to detect outside of the breeding season, when it does not sing its distinctive song. One giveaway is its call note: a high, thin, lisping “tsee.” It is often easy to miss, especially when it is given in the company of golden-crowned kinglets, a species that it flocks with during the winter.

The kinglets have a similar call note, but theirs is repeated in groups of three or more: “tsee tsee tsee,” whereas the creeper’s is a single note.

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Author’s note: In my column on March 1-2, I stated that the wax of the bayberry fruit renders it indigestible to any other bird except the yellow-rumped warbler. This was incorrect. As stated in the “Birds of North America” series, “Its ability to digest the waxes in bayberries makes it unique among warblers, and allows populations to winter in coastal areas as far north as Nova Scotia.”

Chris Corio, a volunteer at Fields Pond Nature Center in Holden, can be reached at fieldspond@juno.com