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The Treecreeper.

A birds hill is shaped for a particular purpose. That is why sparrows have hills shaped like a cone for picking up and crushing seeds and why the curlew has a long curved beak for extracting worms from the marshy grounds which he frequents, or, the treecreeper's is long and painted to pick out his food from the back of the tree.

There is no woodpecker in Ireland but the treecreeper is often misnamed as a woodpecker because of its similar manner of feeding. His longish tail feathers are stiff to prop the bird against the tree as it explores the bark. It has a mouse-like appearance as it moves jerkily up and around the tree in song. Their long finely pointed curved bill and then relatively large eyes are well adapted to seeking food - earwigs, small moths, woodlice, spiders and beetles - concealed deep in cracks in the back. They can probe areas where others cannot and therefore don't compete for food. Their nest is usually hidden in the narrow space behind loose back on a clump of ivy on a tree.



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