Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Blackpoll Warbler

In my last post, on the black and white warbler, I noted that I photographed one in Central Park in New York City and when I posted the photos to iNaturalist, one observer noted that my photos contained two species, the other being a blackpoll warbler. That was a nice surprise: I had the photos intermixed with each other. I don't know if I saw one and then the other, or saw them both intermixed over an interval of time. My impression at the time was that the same bird went from one tree to another and I may have just spotted another species in a different tree. 

The breeding blackpoll warbler has a black cap instead of a striped crown, has a white instead of a black cheek, and orange instead of black legs and feet. Non-breeding blackpoll warblers have a greenish head, greenish upperparts with dark streaks and yellowish breasts.  



It breeds through most of Alaska and Canada down into a piece of northern New England. They winter in the Antilles Islands and northern South America. Many of them have a 1,600 mile long distance non-stop migration, one of the longest of any bird. However, they don't all do that non-stop junket as evidenced by the bird I saw in Central Park. 
Blackpoll warbler range from Wikipedia.

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