Black-and-White Warbler, Mniotilta varia


Black-and-white Warbler
This male was establishing his territory with vigorous song as an afternoon April shower brought raindrops to Shawnee Forest in southeastern Ohio in April 2015.

Black-and-white Warbler
Above, the same bird foraging on the bark of a tree like a creeper, a familiar action for birds of this species; below, the bird singing from a different perch than the one shown in the topmost picture. 

Black-and-white Warbler

Black-and-White Warbler
Black-and-whites appear irregularly in fall and winter in the San Francisco Bay Area. The one shown above was seen by many local birders in Christmas season 2006 in the sycamores along Penetencia Creek in eastern San Jose. It is a first-winter male, which closely resembles a female in breeding plumage -- no black on the breast (compare the breeding-plumage males in spring shown up the page) but heavy streaking on the sides. The bird below, seen near Lake Merced in San Francisco during Fall 2012, is a non-breeding-plumage female, showing indistinct streaks on the flanks and behind the eye.


Black-and-White Warbler