Prevalent nowadays between 16˚S and 38˚S, the population has contracted from the edges of its pre-European range, declining in Adelaide and Cape York.

[2] Coenraad Jacob Temminck and Meiffren Laugier de Chartrouse described the brown treecreeper in 1824, and it still bears its original name today.

All three occupy similar savannah and open woodland habitat, and have a sexually dimorphic marking on the upper breast or throat (black in the male, reddish in the female).

[2] Known as the black treecreeper, it has distinctive sooty brown plumage and is slightly smaller than the southern subspecies.

[2] Roosting nocturnally and solitarily, the brown treecreeper forages during the day on the ground and on tree surfaces in small groups or pairs, feeding mainly on ants, beetles and insect larvae.

While occasionally feeding on nectar,[2][8] the brown treecreeper more often probes fissures, cracks and hollows of trees, gleaning and probing as it hops along logs or spirals up rough barked trees, spending more time foraging on the ground if a resident of an arid territory.

The breeding season lasts from July to February with the majority of eggs laid from September until late October.

[2] The nest is usually located in a tree hollow beneath a canopy, often nearby the boundary of another brown treecreeper territory to attract extra help feeding.

Nest materials consist of twigs, grass, leaves, bark, dung, animal fur and sometimes human refuse such as aluminum foil.

Records indicate that in nests attended by helpers, breeding success is four times more likely and significantly more offspring are produced.

[2] Threats to the species include land clearing and the resultant habitat loss and fragmentation, the impacts of which are thought to disrupt dispersal and therefore recruitment.

[2] Subspecies melanotus has declined from eastern parts of its range in Cape York Peninsula, thought to be due to more extensive and frequent fire regime, which has affected fallen tree trunks and logs (a preferred foraging substrate for this species).