White-browed Treecreeper Climacteris affinis

Length 14–16 cm; wingspan 22 cm; weight 21 g.

The White-browed Treecreeper is usually seen singly or in pairs, and less often in small groups of up to four birds.  The species is active while it is foraging, but feeding birds are usually inconspicuous, calling infrequently and often silent for long periods.  Foraging birds can be approached readily as they move slowly and methodically over tree-trunks and limbs, often venturing into the upper canopy, and they may also search for food on logs and branches, or among leaf-litter and debris on the ground, and sometimes even on patches of bare ground.  They nest in vertical hollows in branches, spouts or trunks of trees (dead or living).  They often rest at the top of a dead tree or the tip of an upper branch in a live tree, or on logs on the ground.  The flight of the White-browed Treecreeper is rather undulating, with relatively slow wing-beats.  Calls of the White-browed can be loud and strident; they often call from perches atop live or dead trees.

HABITAT
White-browed Treecreepers usually inhabit shrublands and woodlands in arid and semi-arid regions.  They mostly occur in tall shrubland and low woodland dominated by acacias, such as Mulga, Western Myall and Gidgee, or casuarinas, such as Buloke and Belah, or woodlands dominated by cypress-pines Callitris.  In north-western Victoria, the species tends to be restricted to woodlands dominated by Belah, cypress-pine, or a mixture of Buloke and cypress-pine.  They are less often seen in mallee, Sugarwood shrubland, or woodland dominated by Leopardwood.  The species sometimes inhabits Coolibah, River Red Gum or Black Box woodlands near wetlands.  The understorey of suitable woodlands may be closed and dominated by a lower layer of shrubs, open and dominated by grasses, or absent altogether.

DISTRIBUTION
Endemic to mainland Australia.

STATUS

• Vulnerable in Victoria
• Rare in South Australia

THREATS
In south-eastern Australia, At least 90% of this species’ habitat has been cleared, with isolated sub-populations left in remnant areas of habitat.  In Victoria, apparently suitable remnants of less than 18 hectares are not occupied, and it is likely that extinctions in fragments will continue for many decades after isolation.  Remnant habitat is heavily grazed by stock and elevated populations of kangaroos, which prevent recruitment of habitat trees.

MOVEMENTS
Sedentary or resident.

CALLS