Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes the brown creeper as “one of the continent's most inconspicuous songbirds.” Elsewhere, I’ve seen it described as “drab,” “undistinguished,” even “short-changed in the looks department.” Okay, sure – this isn’t a flashy bird, but that serves it well. Even longtime birders sometimes overlook a creeper at work, as it so expertly blends in with the bark of the trees on which it forages.

The species has a distinctive approach to this foraging. A creeper begins at the base of a tree trunk, moving upward, often in a spiral around the trunk, until it nears the top, when it flies to the base of a nearby tree and begins again. All the while, it uses its curved bill to deftly glean insects and spiders from the tree bark. They’re thorough foragers, and the American naturalist John Burroughs noted that the creeper “takes what both the nuthatch and the woodpecker miss. Working together, it seems as if they must make a pretty clean sweep."

No matter how uninspiring some folks find this bird, I take great pleasure in spotting one winding up an oak in my yard. I don’t see them often, but everything stops when I do – creeper at work. ⚠️

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.