Brown Creeper

Maori Name: Pipipi

Mohoua novaeseelandiae

Maori name Pipipi

                                                                                      

Once widespread, the Brown Creeper, or NZ titmouse, suffered a decline in its population with the advent of European settlement.  However, populations appear to have stabilised in their current patchy distributions.  They benefit in areas with possum, rat and stoat control.  

 

The breeding season extends from late September to early February, and two broods may successfully be raised in one season.  The female builds a deeply cupped nest from bark strips, moss, lichens, and leaf skeletons held together by cobwebs and line with grass and a few feathers.  It is usually place in the dense foliage of the forest canopy, in a dense bush or vine of the understorey.  Two to four eggs are laid at one day intervals, which are incubated by the female for 17 to 21 days.  Both parents feed the young which fledge in 18 to 20 days.  After leaving the nest the young will stay with the parents as a family group for up to two months while the parents continue to feed them.  In the South island, the brown creeper is the main host of the long-tailed cuckoo and a pair can sometimes be seen feeding a young cuckoo twice the size of themselves.

 

The Brown Creeper has a reddish brown crown, rump and tail, has ash grey on the face and neck with a small white stripe behind the eye.  The under parts are a light buff colour with a dark bar near the tail.

The Brown Creeper is widespread and locally common on the south island mainland and Stewart Island and is abundant on Codfish Island.

 

With the arrival of European settlers and the introduction of dogs, cats and rats and the associated loss of lowland areas for human habitation there was a decline in Brown Creeper populations but this appears to have stabilised and the species is now protected.