Treecreeper - Systematics

Systematics

The family consists of two subfamilies, each with one genus. Their distinctive anatomical and behavioral characteristics are discussed in their respective articles.

• Subfamily Certhiinae, genus Certhia is the typical treecreepers, with seven species found in Europe and Asia, and one, the Brown Creeper, in North America.
• Subfamily Salpornithinae, genus Salpornis contains only the Spotted Creeper of India and Africa.

Some taxonomists place the nuthatches and treecreepers in a larger grouping with the wrens and gnatcatchers. This superfamily, the Certhioidea was based on phylogenetic studies using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, and was created to cover a clade of four families removed from a larger grouping of passerine birds, the Sylvioidea. The fossil record for this group appears to be restricted to a foot bone of an early Miocene bird from Bavaria which has been identified as an extinct representative of the climbing Certhioidea, a clade comprising the treecreepers, Wallcreeper and nuthatches. It has been described as Certhiops rummeli.

There are two other small bird families with treecreeper or creeper in their name, which are not closely related:

• the Australian treecreepers (Climacteridae)
• the Philippine creepers (Rhabdornithidae)

The woodcreepers (subfamily Dendrocolaptinae) also have a similar name.