Climacteris

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Climacteris
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Climacteridae Genus: Climacteris Gregory Mathews

Climacteris is a genus of bird in the Climacteridae family. It contains the following species:

• White-browed Treecreeper, Climacteris affinis
• Red-browed Treecreeper, Climacteris erythrops
• Brown Treecreeper, Climacteris picumnus
• Black-tailed Treecreeper, Climacteris melanura
• Rufous Treecreeper, Climacteris rufa

These birds and the other members of the family, genus Cormobates, are similar to Northern Hemisphere creepers, Certhiidae, in climbing helically up tree trunks looking for insect food. Differences from Cormobates are

• Climacteris species have black, slightly downcurved bills.
• They have a rusty chest stripe in the female. (In Cormobates the female is marked on the face.)
• They have simple vocal repertoires that are the same for both sexes.
• They lay heavily marked pinkish eggs (Simpson and Day 1999).
• They are cooperative breeders; male offspring of previous broods and sometimes other individuals help breeding pairs (Doerr 2003)).

[edit] References

• Doerr, V. A. J. (2003). "Australasian Treecreepers (Climacteridae)", in Christopher Perrins (Ed.): The New Encyclopedia of Birds. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198525060. 
• Peterson, Alan P. (Editor). 1999. Zoological Nomenclature Resource (Zoonomen). Accessed 2007-08-30.
• Simpson, Ken; Day, Nicolas (1999). Birds of Australia. Princeton University Press, 369–370. ISBN 0-691-04995-5. Retrieved on 2007-08-30.