Certhia Salpornis The treecreepers are a family, Certhiidae, of small passerine birds, widespread in wooded regions of the Northern Hemisphere and sub-Saharan Africa.

This superfamily, the Certhioidea, was based on phylogenetic studies using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, and was created to cover a clade of four families removed from a larger grouping of passerine birds, the Sylvioidea.

[1] The fossil record for this group appears to be restricted to a foot bone of an early Miocene bird from Bavaria which has been identified as an extinct representative of the climbing Certhioidea, a clade comprising the treecreepers, wallcreeper and nuthatches.

An extinct treecreeper, Certhia rummeli, was described from a fossilized right tarsometatarsus found in karstic fissure fillings in Petersbuch, Bavaria by German paleornithologist Albrecht Manegold.

This specimen implies the branching of Certhioidea occurred 20 MYA, and represents the oldest fossil passerine assignable to an extant subordinated clade of oscines in the Northern Hemisphere.

They often climb up tree trunks in a helical path, hopping with their feet together; their toes are long and tipped with strongly curved claws for gripping.

One species occurs in North America from Alaska to Nicaragua and another has a discontinuous distribution in sub-Saharan Africa and India.