See all posts in the Birds of Carver County series
Mniotilta varia is the Black-and-White Warbler’s scientific name, meaning “striped moss-plucker.”
Neither is as descriptive as its common name, which is as easy to remember as the bird is easy to identify. Although it is almost continually moving as it feeds on insects and larvae, it gives viewers much more time to watch it than most other Warblers.
Like the familiar white-breasted nuthatch, the Black-and-white Warbler will usually hop down, up and sideways on trunks, move along branches, and peek into crevasses and holes looking for food. It does not use its tails as a brace like brown creepers and woodpeckers.
Four to five inches long, with a 7” wingspan, the species size fits into our expectations for a warbler. It has a slightly downward curving bill that is sharply pointed like a Brown Creeper, built to pull out prey lodged in the bark of deciduous trees.
Black striping on the top of its head, back and sides are surprisingly visible in our early-spring trees. If you get a long look with binoculars, or you’re able to get photos with a long lens, you might notice a gray cheek patch on the face, and a white throat — indicating a female. The male has a black cheek patch, and its sides are more heavily streaked.
This species is usually in the first wave of migrating Warblers, seen soon after the yellow-rumps begin their foraging in the almost leafless trees in Carver County. In late April and the first two weeks in May, it will pass north to nesting forests past the Mille Lacs region.
We expect it to finish its nesting and come back to us in mid-August and early September. It would be rare for it to be found west of the Rocky Mountains. Black-and-Whites winter in the far south of the United States and on into Mexico and Central and South America.
Unlike some Warblers, this species may be seen more often than it’s heard because it probably doesn’t nest in our county.
According to Birds of the World website, “Its song is a very high-pitched, thin, repetitive weesee, weesee, weesee or squeaky, squeaky, squeaky. The song is very rhythmic with a monotonous quality, resembling the sound of a wet rag being wiped repetitively across glass.”
If the weather is right, and the winds are favorable, and your neck isn’t too sore watching the leaves burst from their buds, the Black-and-White Warbler may hop into your sight and brighten up your life for a few times this year. Make sure you wish it success while it passes through Carver County.
For more information:
- The Sibley Guide to Birds, David Allen Sibley
- Birds of Minnesota and Wisconsin, Janssen, Tessen, and Kennedy
- Breeding Birds of Minnesota, Pfannmuller, Niemi and Green
- The Audubon Society’s Encyclopedia of North American Birds, John K. Terres
- Birds of the World, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Online: All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology LINK
- Online: Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas
