Tichodroma

Tichodroma 

a genus of birds of the family Ochotonidae of the order Passeriformes. The sole species is the wall creeper (T. muraria). The body is 18 cm long. The bill is subulate; the legs are strong. The back is gray, the tail and underparts black, and the wings raspberry red and black. The wall creeper is distributed in the mountains of Central and Southern Europe and of Western and Central Asia; in the USSR it occurs in the Caucasus and the mountains of Middle Asia. The bird lives on high mountain cliffs and, sometimes, in shady ravines in the lower zones of mountains. In winter it migrates to the foothills. The wall creeper builds its nest in rock crevices; a clutch consists of two to five white speckled eggs. The diet includes spiders and insects; occasionally the bird feeds on small crustaceans, which it gathers on stones along the shores of streams. Some ornithologists assign Tichodroma to the family Sittidae.