The Blackpoll Warbler is famous less for its looks than for its astonishing migration. The breeding male is a neat black-capped bird with white cheeks and boldly streaked sides — superficially like a Black-and-white Warbler but with orange legs and a different pattern — while confusing fall birds are washed greenish and streaky, a classic identification headache. Its song is one of the highest-pitched of all warblers, a thin, even series of "tsit" notes that some people cannot hear at all.
What makes the Blackpoll extraordinary is its journey: in fall many undertake a nonstop transoceanic flight of some 1,800 miles or more over the Atlantic, from the northeastern coast to South America, one of the longest overwater migrations of any songbird, fueled by fat reserves that nearly double their weight. It breeds in the boreal spruce forests of the far north and passes through Michigan as a late-spring and fall migrant, one of the last warblers to move through in each direction.
Gleans caterpillars, insects, and spiders from foliage in the boreal canopy during breeding, and fuels its long migration by feeding heavily to build fat reserves, adding berries and fruit in fall. Before its transoceanic flight it nearly doubles its body weight in stored fat.
Yes. Many Blackpoll Warblers make a nonstop flight of roughly 1,800 miles or more over the open Atlantic in fall, from the northeastern coast to South America — one of the longest overwater migrations known for a songbird, powered by huge stored fat reserves.
The Blackpoll has a solid black cap and clean white cheeks, streaked sides, and orange or yellowish legs, and it gleans among leaves. The Black-and-white Warbler has a striped crown and creeps along bark like a nuthatch.
It is a late migrant in both seasons — often the tail end of the spring warbler wave in late May and one of the later warblers again in fall. It breeds far to the north in boreal spruce forests.
Fall adults and immatures are olive-green with faint streaking and pale legs, a world away from the spring male's black cap and white cheek. They are the anchor of the 'confusing fall warblers' problem.
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