Brown Creeper

Pīpipi is a small endemic South Island songbird that travels in lively flocks through forest and scrub. It has warm brown upperparts, pale underparts, a buff eyebrow and a long graduated tail; female chaffinch has white wing bars and a heavier bill.

It is widespread in the South Island and on Rakiura/Stewart Island from coastal scrub to montane forest. Flocks glean insects from foliage and bark, take small fruit and weave cup nests in dense shrubs.

Brown creeper is Not Threatened (NZ Threat Classification). Rats and habitat clearance reduce local numbers. Forest tracks throughout the South Island, especially mixed beech forest and Rakiura, regularly produce flocks.