Black-tailed treecreeper

Black-tailed treecreeper
A black-tailed treecreeper near Marrakai, Northern Territory, Australia.
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Climacteridae
Genus:	Climacteris
Species:	C. melanurus
Binomial name
Climacteris melanurus Gould, 1843

The black-tailed treecreeper (Climacteris melanurus) is a species of bird in the family Climacteridae. It is endemic to north and northwestern Australia.

Its natural habitats are temperate forests and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. ^[1]

Description and Habitat

The Black-tailed treecreeper is small to medium in size, generally measuring between 16–20 cm in length with a weight of 27–36 grams. ^{[2] [3]} It has a wingspan of 8.7–10.2 cm and a white wing-bar that is highly visible during flight. Both sexes are dark brown and black-tailed with large feet. The male has a black throat with white streaking, while the female has a white throat and white streaking through a reddish-brown upper breast. ^{[4] [5]} Similar in appearance to the Brown treecreeper of eastern Australia, with no white supercilium being the most obvious distinction. ^[2]

Habitat includes open grassy woodlands, savanna, dry forest, and moist lowland forest. ^[6] It is the only treecreeper species found in northern Australia, and normally travels in pairs or trios, and occasionally small groups. ^{[2] [6]}

Song

The Black-tailed treecreeper is often heard before it is seen. Its song is a blend of rising and falling notes and whistles with a downward pitch, commonly in duet. ^[2]

Calls

It is most often heard giving a contact call, a loud, metallic chee-ting or ching, often singly or in repeated 1-2 second intervals. When feeding or in flight, a quick burst of softer notes may be heard. ^[2] Other calls include a slow, repeated pip pip pip. ^[6]

Evolution

The Black-tailed treecreeper is thought to be the closest living relative (a sister taxon) of the Brown treecreeper. The two birds were likely a single species, separated over time by the Carpentarian Barrier — a large, historically sparse and dry area in north-eastern Australia, which prevented the two groups from interacting. They diverged genetically and remain allopatric, but share many similarities, including appearance, habitat and similar mannerisms. It is also closely related to the Rufous Treecreeper of southern and southwestern Australia. ^[7]

An illustration of the Black-tailed treecreeper from Gracius Broinowski's book The birds of Australia

Taxonomy

Climacteris melanurus was first described as C. melanura by the English ornithologist John Gould in an 1843 publishing of the journal Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London , of which Gould was a member. ^[8] The description was based on a specimen collected by Benjamin Bynoe near modern-day Derby, during the third voyage of the HMS Beagle to Australia. ^[9] Around the same time, Gould himself had also been in Australia on an unrelated trip, collecting bird specimens for his book The Birds of Australia , in which the species would later be published. The genus name Climacteris is derived from the Greek word klimaktēr (κλιμακτήρ), meaning 'rung of a ladder', referring to the bird's habit of climbing vertically up tree trunks. The specific epithet melanurus derives from the Greek words melas (meaning black) and oura (meaning tail), hence the common name, "black-tailed". ^{[10] [11]}

A Black-tailed treecreeper chick on a tree

Subspecies

There are two recognised subspecies:

• C. m. melanurus – The nominate subspecies, found across Northern Australia from the Kimberley region in Western Australia to the Leichhardt River in Queensland. ^[5]

• C. m. wellsiOgilvie-Grant, 1909 – Only found in the Pilbara region of northwest Western Australia, between the De Grey and Fortescue Rivers. It was originally described by William Robert Ogilvie-Grant as a separate species, Climacteris wellsi, in 1909, but was later reclassified as a subspecies. ^[12] Before being reclassed, it was commonly known as the Allied treecreeper. ^[13] Mitochondrial DNA testing has since confirmed that the two birds are deeply divergent, further supporting their status as subspecies. ^[5]

The subspecies differ slightly in appearance; C. m. wellsi is slightly smaller and paler, with females having more extensive streaking through the breast, and rufous-brown underparts. ^[2] Their ranges don't overlap, separated by the Great Sandy Desert of northwestern Australia, in which there have been no sightings. ^{[5] [14]}

Breeding

They participate in cooperative breeding, in which multiple individuals assist in raising young — not just the biological parents. ^[7] A clutch of 1–3 pinkish-white, reddish-brown spotted or purplish-red spotted eggs are laid in nests of fur, grass, and feathers, normally in hollowed out tree trunks and branches. Incubation takes between 14–24 days. ^[14] They likely reach sexual maturity around 2 years old.

Feeding and behavior

The Black-tailed treecreeper is an insectivore, primarily feeding on invertebrates found beneath the bark of tree trunks and branches, and occasionally on the ground. ^[5] They generally land near the base of a tree and climb rapidly upwards, often spiraling around the trunk as they search for food — a common trait among Australasian treecreepers.

Conservation

The Black-tailed treecreeper is assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

See also

• Brown treecreeper
• Rufous treecreeper
• Australasian treecreeper

References

1. BirdLife International (2017). "Climacteris melanurus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2017 e.T22703580A110983622. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-1.RLTS.T22703580A110983622.en . Retrieved 11 November 2021.
2. Menkhorst, P.; Rogers, D.; Clarke, R.; Davies, J.; Marsack, P.; Franklin, K. (2019). The Australian Bird Guide (Revised Edition). Victoria: CSIRO Publications. p. 422. ISBN   978-1-4863-1193-4.
3. Slater, Peter; Slater, Pat; Slater, Raoul (1995). The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds (Revised Edition). Sydney, Australia: Lansdowne. p. 270. ISBN   0-947116-99-0.
4. Morcombe, Michael (2004). Field guide to Australian birds. Steve Parish Publishing.
5. "Black-tailed Treecreeper". Western Australian Museum Collections. Retrieved 10 November 2025.
6. "Black-tailed treecreeper - eBird". ebird.org. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
7. Edwards, Scott V; Tonini, João F R; Mcinerney, Nancy; Welch, Corey; Beerli, Peter (1 February 2023). "Multilocus phylogeography, population genetics and niche evolution of Australian brown and black-tailed treecreepers (Aves:Climacteris)". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 138 (3): 249–273. doi: 10.1093/biolinnean/blac144 . ISSN   0024-4066.
8. Gould, John (1843). "Descriptions of thirty New Species of Birds from Australia". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London . 10 (10–11): 138–139.
9. Gould, Elizabeth, Gould, John, Richter, Henry Constantine (1840). The birds of Australia. Vol. 4. Printed by R. and J. E. Taylor.
10. "Climacteric". Merriam-Webster . Retrieved 3 January 2025.
11. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names (PDF). London: Christopher Helm. pp. 112, 248. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
12. Ogilvie-Grant, WR (1909). "On a collection of birds from Western Australia". Ibis. 3 (4): 664. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.1909.tb05276.x.
13. "Black-tailed Treecreeper / Climacteris melanurus LC". DiBird. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
14. Noske, R. (2020). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D. A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Black-tailed Treecreeper (Climacteris melanurus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World" . Birds of the World . Ithaca, NY, USA. doi:10.2173/bow.bkttre1.01.