Gould described the Tree creeper as a little, creeping, mouse-like bird often seen 'traversing the boles and horizontal branches of the larger trees, the palings of an enclosure, or (among other places) the upright sides of an old wall' where it searched for spiders and other insects.

The male (below) and the female are depicted feeding their young in a nest cavity of a tree covered with lichen Usnea florida Linnaeus.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds Eurasia from British Isles and Scandinavia south to southern Europe, northern Turkey, northern Iran and southern Russian and east through Siberia to Sakalin, south through east Asia to Turkestan, China, northern Pakistan, northern India, Tibet, northeast Burma and Japan