Black-and-white warbler
Mniotilta varia
Identification Tips:
- Small, active, insect-eating bird
- Long thin bill
- Creeps along treetrunks and branches like a nuthatch
- Black and white plumage
Male:
- Black crown, cheek, and throat (throat white in Fall and Winter)
- White supercilium, malar streak and central crown stripe
- Streaked breast and flanks
- Spotted undertail coverts
- Black back with white streaks
- Black wings with white wing bars
- Black legs
- Female is similar to male but has a white throat, grayish
cheeks, and buffy flanks
- Immature male similar to female but lacks buffy wash on underparts
Similar species:
The Black-and-white Warbler is perhaps the easiest warbler to identify with
its distinctive nuthatch-like feeding strategy and contrasting black and
white plumage. The male Blackpoll Warbler is also black and white but lacks
the white supercilium and doesn't creep along trunks and branches