Blackburnian Warbler

 

The breeding male Blackburnian Warbler has an intricate black-and-white plumage set off by flame-orange face and throat.

These forest-canopy specialists are seldom seen at eye level except during migration, when they may be found among dozens of other warbler species at sites that concentrate migrants in spring and fall. They spend winters in South America in open forests including shade-coffee plantations.

Although the Blackburnian Warbler does not associate with other birds while it is nesting, it may bring its fledged young to forage in flocks of chickadees, kinglets, and nuthatches. The begging of the warbler chicks can even attract chickadees.

No other North American warbler has an orange throat.

In springtime, rival male Blackburnian Warblers perform remarkable territorial conflicts that recall an aerial ballet. They chase one another through and around the treetops, flying in loops, plummeting downward through the branches in a whirling pattern, gliding with tail raised and spread, or slowly flapping in exaggerated “moth flight,” as researchers call it. Once territories are established, the aerobatics die down. Cornell All About Birds