Birds · Passeriformes · Tichodromidae
Wallcreeper
Tichodroma muraria
Least Concern
The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk.
The wallcreeper is one of the most spectacular and hardest-to-see birds in Europe. Grey at rest, on opening its wings it reveals intense crimson patches that make it unmistakable. It lives on vertical high-mountain faces, where it works its way across the rock in short hops, probing the crevices for invertebrates with its long, curved bill. In winter it comes down to lower ground and turns up in gorges, on dams and even on cathedrals. In Spain it breeds in the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian Mountains.
Weight
15 g – 20 g
Size
15 cm – 17 cm
Life expectancy
8 years
