Brown Creeper sounds more like a comic book character than a bird, but this inconspicuous little bird belongs to an interesting guild of birds that make their living by pecking and probing in the crevices of tree bark for insects, their larvae and eggs, spiders, and other arthropods too small for most birds. Brown Creepers are uniquely adapted to this foraging style because of their long, thin, and curved bill for probing, long claws for adhering to the tree trunk, and stiffened tail feathers to support their bodies while climbing and probing. They typically fly to the bottom of a tree trunk and climb upwards in a spiral pattern. Although nuthatches creep like creepers, nuthatches have straight bills, short tails, and tend to start at the top of a tree and work their way down. The brown coloration with white streaking, white breast, and rufous (reddish) tail are also distinctive Brown Creeper features and provide them some camouflage. They are small birds, about five inches long and weighing slightly over a quarter ounce, or about the weight of seven or eight paper clips.