Blackpoll Warbler

Dendroica striataOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Wood Warblers (Parulidae)

General

Blackpoll Warbler: Medium-sized warbler with black-streaked, gray upperparts, white underparts, and black-streaked white sides. Head has black cap and prominent white cheek patch. Wings are dark with two white bars. Female, winter adult, and juvenile are olive-tinged and lack white and black markings on head.

Range and Habitat

Blackpoll Warbler: Breeds from Alaska and northern Canada to southern Canada and northern New England. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred breeding habitat is coniferous forests; during migration found chiefly in tall trees.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"seet-seet-seet-seet-seet-seet-seet-seet"

Interesting Facts

The song of the male Blackpoll Warbler is one of the highest-pitched of all birds.

Part of their fall migratory route is over the Atlantic Ocean from the northeastern United States to Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, or northern South America. This route averages 1,864 miles over water, requiring a potentially nonstop flight of up to 88 hours.

To accomplish this flight, they nearly double their body mass and take advantage of a shift in prevailing wind direction.

A group of warblers has many collective nouns, including a "bouquet", "confusion", "fall", and "wrench" of warblers.

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Blackpoll Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler: Medium-sized warbler with black-streaked, gray upperparts, white underparts, and black-streaked white sides. Head has black cap and prominent white cheek patch. Bill is black. Wings are dark with two white bars. Pink legs and feet. Swift, direct flight with rapidly beating wings.

● Song: "seet-seet-seet-seet-seet-seet-seet-seet"

● Foraging & Feeding: Blackpoll Warbler: Eats aphids, beetles, mosquitoes, ants, wasps, gnats, and spiders. Actively chases insects; sometimes catches flying insects in mid-air.

● Breeding & nesting: Blackpoll Warbler: Three to five brown or lavender marked, white eggs are laid in a twig-and-grass nest, often lined with feathers, and usually built in a small evergreen tree. Female incubates eggs for about 12 days.

● Similar species: Blackpoll Warbler: Black-and-white Warbler has striped crown. Bay-breasted Warbler is has black legs, buff undertail coverts, and fewer streaks on breast. Pine Warbler lacks black streaks on back, has black legs, and has more yellow on throat and breast.

Flight Pattern

Weak flight on rapidly beating wings.

● Range & Habitat: Blackpoll Warbler: Breeds from Alaska and northern Canada to southern Canada and northern New England. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred breeding habitat is coniferous forests; during migration found chiefly in tall trees.

^BreedingMonogamous, Polygamous

^PopulationAbundant

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.5 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America