The Treecreeper is also called the Common or Eurasian Treecreeper outside of the UK. British Isles subspecies is illustrated above and immediately below. It is a relatively common but most elusive small bird which spends much of its time climbing tree trunks in search of insects (it tends to climb up, then fly to the base of another tree to climb up; a small bird walking down a tree is likely to be a nuthatch, which rarely climbs up). It is well camouflaged and runs round the far side of the trunk out of sight of approaching people/predators.

The Treecreeper has a thin, curved bill, a white chin and front and pointed tail feathers.

The Common/Eurasian Treecreeper and the Short-toed Treecreeper are visually similar although there are often small visual differences and they have a different sound. There is nothing very short-toed about the Short-toed (toes are typically slightly shorter and bill imperceptibly longer). Ranges overlap in parts of western Europe, including in central Germany where this bird was photographed in mixed woodland. It is marginally more likely to be the Short-toed on a deciduous tree but its front seems as white as the Eurasian (but not the supercilium). If Eurasian, it is the German subspecies, not the British shown further above.

Both species hunt in the same manner, moving up treetrunks and finding small invertebrate eggs and similar morsels in tree crevices.

The Eurasian Treecreeper's range covers much of temperate Europe and Asia through to the Far East (Japan) with several subspecies. The Short-toed Treecreeper's range covers western and central Europe and coastal North Africa and Asia Minor.