As its name suggests, the wallcreeper is attracted to rock faces – and very high ones at that, climbing with amazing skill to locate its food.
During warmer periods of the year, it is found at altitudes ranging from 2,200 metres to 3,000m above sea level.
Due to its preference for high and inaccessible places, this insect eater is difficult to observe, although its population in Spain is estimated at between 1,200 and 1,800 nesting pairs.
The wallcreeper searches for its prey in fissures and gaps in rock faces, usually where there is vegetation.
According to the For the Birds website, their name comes from the way they ascend rock faces.
“The wallcreeper moves by hopping and creeping along vertical surfaces, using its long, curved claws to grip the rock while it probes for food with its slender, down-curved bill,” they say.
“This ability to move vertically has enabled the wallcreeper to exploit a niche that few other birds can.”
SEO/BirdLife say the wallcreeper moves ‘with incredible skill’ on rock faces, ‘which it searches meticulously’.
Then, in a short flight, it moves to another area to look for food.
In flight, it is like a large butterfly, notes SEO/BirdLife, fluttering in an undulating fashion, with a series of rapid wingbeats followed by a glide.
The wallcreeper has broad black, red and white-spotted wings; its song is a steadily rising whistle.
Bird of the year
The wallcreeper is SEO/BirdLife’s bird of the year for 2025 and they are publishing information periodically about this intriguing species.
They posed the question this week, ‘where is the bird of the year during the spring’?
Ornithologists reveal that wallcreepers are currently found in high areas of the Pyrenees and Cantabrian mountains (principally Picos de Europa), where the nesting season is ‘in full flow’.
In winter the wallcreeper abandons these lofty positions to head south; it can be seen in Alicante province and Murcia, as well as central mountain ranges and the Sierra Morena in Andalucía, says SEO/BirdLife.
While it prefers rocky zones, it has also been spotted on tall buildings in towns and cities, and reservoir dams.
SEO/BirdLife has bird of the year status ‘in order to bring attention to a species of Spanish birdlife’.
This is done to shine a light on a species which requires special attention ‘because of its poor state of conservation, or because of the urgent need to protect the habitats in which it lives’.
“In this way we can pressure governments to bring in measures to protect the natural heritage of all of us,” they state.
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