Black-and-white Warbler

IDENTIFICATION: The male has a bold pattern of black and white stripes and streaks on the back, undersides and head, and has two white wing bars. The female lacks the maleÆs black cheek and throat patches and has duller black streaking below. The long bill is slightly curved, which aids in extracting insects from bark crevices. The legs and toes are also adapted to creeping on tree bark. Length: 13 cm.; weight: 10 g.

VOICE: The call is a dull "tick" note. The common song is a high-pitched series of rapidly rising and falling notes, given rarely in winter in Puerto Rico. Audio 2 (M. Oberle).

HABITAT: Mangroves, shade coffee plantations, wooded gardens and forests at all elevations, but especially in the forest interior.

HABITS: The Black-and-white Warbler is a winter visitor with a unique feeding pattern. It flies to the base of a tree trunk and then works its way carefully up the trunk and larger limbs, pausing occasionally to probe crevices in the treeÆs bark for insects and spiders. It also gleans caterpillars, ants, flies and other insects in mid-levels of the forest among bromeliads and leaves. Its scientific name means "moss-plucking." The Black-and-white Warbler frequently travels in mixed-species flocks, including the endemic Elfin-woods Warbler in the limited range of that species. Individuals often return to the same winter feeding area each year. Its nest in North America is a cup of bark, moss, and grass on the ground at the base of a tree, and contains 4-5 white eggs with fine brown spots.

STATUS AND CONSERVATION: A common winter visitor. It is one of the migrant warblers that has not shown some evidence of population declines. However, it is threatened on its breeding grounds in North America by cowbird nest parasitism, pesticide use and forest fragmentation.

RANGE: Breeds in woodlands of eastern North America west to central Canada. It winters from Florida and southern Texas, south to the northern Andes and throughout the West Indies. It is common in the forests of El Yunque and many other public forests.

TAXONOMY: PASSERIFORMES; PARULIDAE

Female - Photo: G. Beaton

Female - Photo: G. Beaton

References

Arendt, W.J. 1992. Status of North American migrant landbirds in the Caribbean region: a summary. Pp. 143-171 in Ecology and conservation of neotropical migrant landbirds (J.M. Hagan III and D.W. Johnston, eds.) Smithsonian Instit. Press, Washington, D.C.

Bent, A.C. 1953. Life histories of North American wood warblers. Smithsonian Instit. U.S. National Museum Bull. 203. (Reprinted by Dover Press, NY, 1963).

Curson, J., D. Quinn, and D. Beadle. 1994. Warblers of the Americas: an identification guide. Houghton Mifflin, NY.

Dunn, J. and K. Garrett. 1997. A field guide to warblers of North America. Houghton Mifflin, NY.

Faaborg, J. and J.E.Winters. 1980. More returns from the Guánica forest, Puerto Rico. J Field Ornithol. 51(4):368.

Faaborg, J. 1982. Avian population fluctuations during drought conditions in Puerto Rico. Wilson Bull. 94(1):20-30.

Faaborg, J. and W.J. Arendt. 1984. Population sizes and philopatry of winter resident warblers in Puerto Rico. J Field Ornithol. 55(3):376-378.

Faaborg, J. and W.J. Arendt. 1992. Long-term declines of winter resident warblers in a Puerto Rican dry forest: which species are in trouble? Pp. 57-63 in Ecology and conservation of neotropical migrant landbirds (J.M. Hagan III and D.W. Johnston, eds.) Smithsonian Instit. Press, Washington, D.C.

Kricher, J. C. 1995. Black-and-white Warbler (Mniotilta varia). No. 158 in The birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, PA, and Am. Ornithol. Union, Washington, D.C.

Pérez-Rivera, R.A. 1980. Algunas notas sobre migración de aves en Puerto Rico. Science-Ciencia 7(4):123-126.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Princeton.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. Una guía a las aves de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes. Publishing Resources, Inc., Santurce, PR.

Raffaele, H.A., J.W. Wiley, O.H. Garrido, A.R. Keith, and J.I. Raffaele. 1998. Guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton.

Wunderle, J.M., Jr., and R.B. Waide. 1993. Distribution of overwintering nearctic migrants in the Bahamas and Greater Antilles. Condor 95:904-933.

Black-and-white Warbler, Spanish text

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