Brown Creeper

Earlier this year I visited a woodpecker preserve in Nevada City, California and a bird I thought I might see there was the brown creeper, a bird I was not familiar with. I think it may have come to my attention because of my son Sam, who asked if I'd seen one before and he'd just been there. On the way back home from Nevada City I drove the Angeles Crest Highway and hiked the Pacific Crest Trail below Buckhorn Camp above a beautiful stream. There I saw a very camouflaged bird creeping along a tree and found out when I got home and looked at my photos that it was a brown creeper. Birds of the World says that its cryptic coloration and high-pitched vocalizations make it difficult to detect, but that it is widely distributed in forests throughout North America. 

The camouflage here is amazing. I could detect the movement, but had a hard time getting the outlines of the bird. 

 

Range from Birds of the World.

There are 13 subspecies and it appears I saw ssp. zelotes which is found in the mountains of southern Oregon, to northern, eastern and southern California. 

Range from Birds of the World.