Juan Arizaga

The species prefers deciduous and mixed woodland with mature rough-bark trees, copses, orchards, gardens and parks, usually with dense understorey. Its range covers most of C, W, S & SE Europe, parts of Asia Minor and NW Africa (Harrap 2020).

Essentially resident species. Limited short-distance – sometimes altitudinal, movements.

Its population trend in Europe is increasing. Evaluated as “Least Concern” (BirdLife International 2021).

Season of assessment

B

Population trendIncreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		10100000-16800000,12900000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Short-toed Treecreeper

All European populations sedentary. Some altitudinal movements are locally recorded; post-breeding dispersal is rather limited (Harrap 2020).

Distant recoveries (>=50 km) are scarce – 85% of them less than 300km away from the ringing site. They show only local and short-distance movements – mostly within-country or movements across neighbouring countries. Dataset shows such within-country movements in Spain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, France and Switzerland. At least two comparatively “long-distance” movements have been recorded: (1) bird marked in Belgium has been encountered wintering in S Portugal; (2) quite odd case of bird marked in early spring in N Spain and subsequently encountered two months later, during breeding season, in W Africa (Mali).

Recoveries by Condition for Short-toed Treecreeper

Most encounters are obtained since late 1990s. They are generally distributed evenly throughout the year, with prominent peaks in Sep and Oct (ca. 25% combined). The bulk of encounters are recorded in W, SW, C & SC Europe – ca. 99% combined (36, 34, 22 and 7% respectively).

There are very few recoveries prior to 1960. After 1961 most of them (94-99%) are based on alive birds, due mostly to ringing activities. Surprisingly, there are some (just a few, though) recoveries in the past obtained as a result of shooting.

Annual Movements for Short-toed Treecreeper

The species is strictly resident. Post-breeding dispersal movements are extremely limited, usually within several kilometers (less than 50km in most cases). Medium- to long-distant movements are very rare and such are recorded both in juvenile birds (Aug, Belgium – Dec, Portugal, possibly a post-breeding dispersal) and adults (Mar, Spain – May, Mali; May-Jun, Denmark).

As the species is known to be more montane at the southern edge of its range (Harrap 2020), altitudinal migration is not always present in these populations due to a number of adaptations, including behavioural thermoregulation (Carrascal et al. 2001).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Short-toed Treecreeper

Most ringing encounters are recoveries just a few kilometers away from the ringing site. Dispersal movements in juveniles rarely come to extremes, like the one of a bird marked in late summer in Belgium and subsequently encountered wintering in S Portugal in early winter. Adults sometimes perform comparatively long-distance movements as well – either within a single country (late spring to early summer, Denmark) or covering greater distances (from early spring, Iberian Peninsula to late spring, W Africa).

Ringing data from France and SE Europe extremely limited or absent.

Boris Nikolov

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
BirdLife International 2021 . Species factsheet: Certhia brachydactyla. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 30/08/2021.
Carrascal LM, Díaz JA, Huertas DL, Mozetich I. 2001 . Behavioral thermoregulation by treecreepers: trade-off between saving energy and reducing crypsis. Ecology 82: 1642–1654
Harrap, S. 2020 . Short-toed Treecreeper (Certhia brachydactyla), version 1.0. In Birds of the World Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.shttre1.01) Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA

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