Short-Toed Treecreeper (Certhia brachydactyla)

OTHER NAMES: N/A

Latin Etymology: Certhia (bird mentioned by Aristotle) brachydactyla ("short toed")

                                       Adult Short-Toed Treecreeper (subspecies C. b. megarhyncha) at El Pardo, Spain - April 2016

Featured Subspecies: Certhia bracydactyla megarhyncha

Weight: 7.5-11g  /  Length: 12.7cm  /  Wingspan: 21cm

UK AMBER LIST / IUCN Red List: Least Concern

While visually very similar to Eurasian Treecreeper, the Short-Toed Treecreeper is a subtly cifferent and related species found on mainland Europe.  Personally, this isn't a species I wold feel confident separating in the field in the many parts of Europe where they overlap, but, fortunately for me the Short-Toed Treecreeper is absent from the British Isles (though it is found on the Channel Isles) while in much of Spain, including Madrid, the Short-Toed is the only species present.  However, with this picture you can see one of the more obvious diagnostic features; compared to the Common Treecreeper, the white bar on the wing has even serrations rather that erratic ones. There are also subtle differences in colour and dimensions and a different song.

Related Species:
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Certhiidae
Genus: Certhia
Subspecies: C, b, megarhyncha, C. b. brachydactyl, C. b mauritanica, C. b dorotheae, C. b. harterti

 - Sighting Locations -

SPAIN - Spanish -  Agateador común ("Common Crawler")

Locally common resident

 - MADRID 2016 TRIP:  Seen in small numbers around the river at El Pardo 

Further Notes: BirdForum Opus, UCN Red List, RSPB, Wikipedia, Xeno-canto