Hodgson's Treecreeper
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| Certhia hodgsoni Brooks, 1871 |
The Hodgson's Treecreeper, Certhia hodgsoni, is a small passerine bird from the southern rim of the Himalayas.
This treecreeper was formerly considered to constitute the subspecies hodgsoni, mandellii and khamensis of the Common Treecreeper, but is now believed to constitute a distinct species (Tietze et al., 2006).
It is a resident in coniferous woodlands, although it may move downhill to oak/rhododendron woodlands in winter. It nests in tree crevices, and 4-6 reddish-brown blotched pinkish-white eggs are the typical clutch size.
This is a small, 12.5 cm long bird, fairly drab in appearance, streaked brownish above and off-white below. It is browner above than the Common Treecreeper, with a contrasting rufous rump. It has a long curved bill and long stiff tail feathers which help it creep up tree trunks like a mouse looking for insects.
The English and binomial names of this species commemorate Brian Houghton Hodgson, an early English naturalist and ethnologist working in British India.
[edit] References
- Harrap and Quinn, Tits, Nuthatches and Treecreepers ISBN 0-7136-3964-4
- Tietze, Dieter Thomas; Martens, Jochen & Sun, Yue-Hua (2006): Molecular phylogeny of treecreepers (Certhia) detects hidden diversity. Ibis 148(3): 477-488 doi:doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.2006.00547.x (HTML abstract)
