Animalia Life

Cormobates leucophaeus
TAXONOMY
Certhia leucophaea Latham, 1802, Port Jackson, New South Wales, Australia.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Papuan treecreeper, little treecreeper; French: Йchelet Leucophйe; German: Weisskehl-Baumrutscher; Spanish: Sube Palo de Garganta Blanca.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
6 in (15 cm); 0.8 oz (22 g). Brownish gray upperparts with white throat and rufous patch at lower cheek; breast is buff streaked with white.
DISTRIBUTION
Eastern Australia from north Queensland to Adelaide region. Distinct subspecies in northeast Queensland, Clarke Range of central coastal Queensland, and Mount Lofty Ranges of South Australia.
HABITAT
Tropical, subtropical, and temperate rainforests, eucalypt forests, and woodlands.
BEHAVIOR
Solitary or in pairs in strongly defended territories. Strident whistling and piping, and more subdued chattering calls, display by rapidly flicking tail open and closed with audible clicking sound.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Climbs up trunks and along branches of rough-barked eucalyptus and other trees, gleaning from the surface and probing into bark for ants and other arthropods.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Breeds August–January, but mostly September/October, in hollows in the trunks or branches of living or dead trees, often eucalypts. Two or three eggs, incubated by female for 22–24 days. Nestlings fed by both parents, but only females brood chicks; fledging at 26 days.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Secure, common and copes well with habitat fragmentation.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
None known.

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