Certhia brachydactyla
Certhia brachydactyla
This species is distributed across the European continent and northwest Africa (Keller et al., 2020; BirdLife International, 2024). The short-toed treecreeper occurs continuously and abundantly in the Iberian Peninsula and Ceuta, but not in Melilla, the Balearic Islands, or the Canary Islands (Belamendia in SEO/BirdLife, 2022). It primarily inhabits forest ecosystems in the Eurosiberian region and the supramediterranean zones of northern Spain. In deforested and agricultural areas, its distribution is discontinuous, limiting its presence to riparian forests and other woodland formations.
In Madrid, it is absent only from the most deforested grids in the east and south, being restricted in these areas to the valleys of the main rivers (Díaz et al., 1994). It inhabits pine forests and, to a lesser extent, oak forests, as well as urban parks.
It is a very abundant species throughout the national park, being found in all forested areas within the park and absent only from non-forested and high-mountain zones.
It is a forest bird that selects both deciduous and coniferous forests, provided the trees are mature. Maximum densities are found in pine forests, fir forests, and conifer plantations, followed by riparian forests, and beech or oak forests (Carrascal, 2016). It is abundant in urban parks with extensive tree cover.
In the national park, its highest densities occur in Scots pine forest stands, both dense and open, and to a lesser extent in mixed forests or deciduous woodland formations.
At the global scale, it is considered in the Least Concern category (LC; 2016). In Europe, it would also be classified in the same category (LC; 2021). In Spain, it is considered in the Least Concern category in the 2021 Red List.
The Catalogue of Threatened Species of the Community of Madrid (1992) does not consider the species in any threat category.
BirdLife International 2024. IUCN Red List for birds. https://datazone.birdlife.org.
Carrascal, L. M. 2016. Agateador común–Certhia brachydactyla. En Salvador, A. y Morales, M. B. (eds.): Enciclopedia Virtual de los Vertebrados Españoles. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales. Madrid.
Díaz, M., Martí, R., Gómez-Manzaneque, Á. y Sánchez, A. 1994. Atlas de las aves nidificantes en Madrid. Agencia de Medio Ambiente y SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.
Keller, V., Herrando, S., Voříšek, P., Franch, M., Kipson, M., Milanesi, P., Martí, D., Antón, M., Klvaňová, A., Kalyakin, M. V. Bauer, H. Gr y Foppen, R. P. B. 2020. European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. European Birds Census Council y Lynx Edicions. Barcelona.
SEO/BirdLife (Molina, B., Nebreda, A., Muñoz, A. R., Seoane, J., Real, R., Bustamante, J. y Del Moral, J. C., eds.). 2022. III Atlas de las aves en época de reproducción en España. SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.