The Common Treecreeper is a small passerine bird. It is very similar
to other treecreepers, and has a curved bill, patterned brown
upperparts, whitish underparts, and long stiff tail feathers which
help it creep up tree trunks. It can be most easily distinguished from
the very similar Short-toed Treecreeper, which shares much of its
European range, by its different song. The Common Treecreeper has nine
or more subspecies which breed in different parts of its range in
temperate Eurasia. This species is found in woodlands of all kinds,
but where it overlaps with the Short-toed Treecreeper in western
Europe it is more likely to be found in coniferous forests or at
higher altitudes. It nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes, and
favours introduced Giant Redwoods as nest sites where they are
available. The female typically lays five or six pink-speckled white
eggs in the lined nest, but eggs and chicks are vulnerable to attack
by woodpeckers and mammals, including squirrels. The Common
Treecreeper is insectivorous and climbs up tree trunks like a mouse,
to search for insects which it picks from crevices in the bark with
its fine curved bill. It then flies to the base of another tree with a
distinctive erratic flight. This bird is solitary in winter, but may
form communal roosts in cold weather.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Treecreeper
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1462:
Forces led by Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia attacked an Ottoman camp
at night in an attempt to assassinate Mehmed II.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Attack)
1775:
American Revolutionary War: British forces took Bunker Hill outside
of Boston.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bunker_Hill)
1789:
French Revolution: The Third Estate of France declared itself the
National Assembly.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Assembly_%28French_Revolution%29)
1953:
The Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and the Volkspolizei violently
suppressed an uprising in Berlin against the East German government.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uprising_of_1953_in_East_Germany)
1972:
The Watergate scandal began after five men were arrested for
breaking and entering the offices of the Democratic National Committee
in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C..
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal)
1982:
The body of Italian banker Roberto Calvi, known as "God's Banker"
due to his close association with the Vatican, was found hanging from
scaffolding beneath London's Blackfriars Bridge.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Calvi)
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Wiktionary's Word of the day:
thrall: One who is enslaved.
(
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thrall)
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Wikiquote of the day:
Our security strategies have not yet caught up with the risks we are
facing. The globalization that has swept away the barriers to the
movement of goods, ideas and people has also swept with it barriers
that confined and localized security threats.
-- Mohamed ElBaradei
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mohamed_ElBaradei)