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Blackpoll Warbler

Status Common transient, uncommon in summer. Breeds. First spring arrivals generally occur in mid-May (average 13 May, earliest 1 May). Two earlier appearances must be considered abnormal: 10 near Canso on 18 April 1969 (E. Armsworthy) and 6 at Gardiner Mines, Cape Breton County, on 22 April 1974 (R. Beecher). This warbler nests in coastal and island spruce forests from Yarmouth to Cape Breton Island, and inland is regular in the Cape Breton Highlands. It is among our last summer warblers to depart, with major fall movements evident from mid-September to mid-October. Late birds are routinely seen in November and later (average 5 November, latest 5 December). An individual on Sable Island on 13-15 December 1968 may have been the same bird that frequented a feeder there from 1 January to 4 February 1969 (C. and N. Bell), giving us our only winter record (incorrectly reported as 17 birds in the second edition of this book).

Description Length: 13-14.5 cm. Adult male: Crown and nape black; cheek white; back gray with black stripes; two white wing bars; underparts white, with bold black stripes along sides; outer tail feathers tipped with white; legs and feet grayish yellow. Adult female: Quite different; upperparts, including crown, olive-green to gray-green streaked with dark gray; wing bars yellowish or greenish white; grayish white stripe above eye; underparts vary from pale olive-yellow to grayish white; sides of head, sides of throat, sides of flanks streaked with dark gray; belly and undertail coverts white; legs and feet similar to those of male.

Breeding Nest: Compact and bulky, of coarse twigs, grass stems and lichens, with a lining of fine grass and a profusion of gulls' feathers which curl over the top to conceal the nest contents. It is usually located at low heights in a thick spruce of stunted growth in open woodlands, or in a small spruce growing in a recently cleared area. I have never known it to nest in thick growth or in well-shaded woods. Eggs: 4-5; white, rather heavily spotted with various shades of cinnamon-and darker brown, chiefly about the larger end. From 18 to 23 June 1922, six typically placed nests were found on Seal Island. None was over 2 m from the ground and all were saddled on small branches and well concealed by branches growing immediately above. Five nests held eggs and the sixth nest contained newly hatched young. The eggs were two sets of four and three sets of five; incubation of all sets was fairly well advanced, making it apparent that laying begins on Seal Island about the end of the first week in June.

Range Breeds from Alaska to Labrador and Newfoundland, south to Maine, the Catskill Mountains of New York State, central Quebec, northern Manitoba and central British Columbia. Winters in northern South America.

Remarks Blackpolls are more sluggish and slow-moving than most warblers and seem to thrive best in cold damp regions where the stunted, wind-wracked conifers are festooned with beard lichen. Seal Island is such a place. While I was there for eight days in June 1922 there was no respite from the cold and depressing fog that rolled in from the ocean, but these frail creatures seemed not to mind in the least, for they sang continuously.

The novice might confuse spring males with those of the Black-and-White Warbler; however, that bird has a striped rather than solid black crown. In fall, adults and immatures are virtually alike in appearance and are easily confused with fall Baybreasted Warblers (see Remarks under that species).