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Maximum age:8 years
Eggs and clutches:Incubation two weeks. 5 - 8 eggs, often two clutches.
Latin name:Certhia familiaris
Description
Appears to be a little mouse that runs jerkily up the tree trunk. It has an amusing way of never crawling downwards. Instead, it will start over again from the foot of the tree and zig zag in a spiral up the trunk.
Appearance
The back has the colour of a piece of bark; the belly is like bone china, the beak narrow and arched.
Similar bird
The only species with a patterned brown back and white belly that crawls up tree trunks.
Sounds and song
The call is thin and repetitive, and song has a beautiful falling its tone.
Song
Contact Call
Food and bird tables
Rarely seen at the bird table. Will eat mostly insects and spiders which it picks out of chinks in bark. Will eat fir tree seeds in the winter which it swallows whole as the beak isn’t strong enough to crack seeds.
The nest and hollows
Likes to nest in hollows if they have the right shape. The nest is normally placed behind a loose piece of bark. Will also breed in species-specific hollows.