Black and White Warbler

We have just returned from our annual camping trip to Killbear Provincial Park on Georgian Bay. It was our 43rd year and had a great time with an assortment of our kids and grandkids. It's an excellent time of year as there is a great variety of birds, snakes, frogs, toads and turtles, as well as other mammals around. We found 2 Rattlers, 8 Garter and 4 Northern Water Snakes, Wood, Green, Bull and Tree Frogs, as well as Painted, Snapping and Blandings Turtles. Over the next couple days I'll try and catch up on some of the images I captured over the last two weeks. Todays bird is the Black and White Warbler

Black and White Warbler

 

Black and White Warblers are also fairly common in Killbear this time of year.

Years ago, before I became semi serious about birding, we would take the kids to the beaver pond at Killbear in the evenings to observe the beaver restoring their dam. In the mornings I would juice up and sit on an old milk crate very early in the mornings just listening to the pond come alive.

Now I find it fascinating to arrive at the pond early, turn on my Merlin app, and just watch it come alive with bird calls. Usually in the first minute you will have a couple dozen bird calls identified.

Black and White Warbler

 

Black-and-white Warblers are medium-sized warblers (small songbirds). They have a fairly long, slightly downcurved bill. The head often appears somewhat flat and streamlined, with a short neck. The wings are long and the tail is short.

Black-and-white Warblers act more like nuthatches than warblers, foraging for hidden insects in the bark of trees by creeping up, down, and around branches and trunks. Despite their arboreal foraging habits, they nest on the ground at the bases of trees.

Deciduous forest and mixed forest are the preferred summer habitats of Black-and-white Warblers, usually with trees of mixed ages that provide a variety of foraging substrates. Cornell All About Birds