Blackpoll Warbler Identification

The Four Keys to ID

• Size & Shape

  Blackpoll Warblers are small songbirds with a short tail and a small thin bill. Compared to other warblers they have longer wings.

  Relative Size

  Larger than a Tennessee Warbler, smaller than a Red-eyed Vireo.

  sparrow-sized or smaller

  Measurements

  • Both Sexes
  • • Length: 5.5 in (14 cm)
    • Weight: 0.4-0.5 oz (12-13 g)
    • Wingspan: 8.3-9.1 in (21-23 cm)

  © Ian Davies / Macaulay Library

• Color Pattern

  Breeding male Blackpoll Warblers are black-and-white with a distinctive black cap and white cheeks bordered by a black mustache stripe. Breeding females are streaky black, white, and gray, without the male’s black cap or white cheek. Both sexes have two white wingbars and orange-yellow legs. In late summer they molt into a very different plumage: greenish-yellow above with dark streaking down the back and faint streaking on white underparts. The face is pale yellow with a dark eyeline.

• Behavior

  Blackpoll Warblers pick insects off foliage, but they also tend to forage near the trunks of evergreen trees, especially on the breeding grounds. During spring migration, they sing while searching for food, often hiding among leaves and branches in deciduous trees and shrubs.
• Habitat

  Blackpoll Warblers breed mainly in spruce and tamarack forests in Canada's boreal forests, but they also use young stands of evergreens and alder or willow thickets. During migration they stop over in evergreen and deciduous forests.