Episode 51: Black-and-White Warbler – Voice of the Wild

This is Illinois Extension’s Voice of the Wild. A new wild voice in just a moment, so find someplace quiet, take a deep breath, and enjoy.

when most warblers are flitting about the upper canopy delicately nipping at unseen arthropod hidden among the buds of leaves and flowers, this early migrant will be found hopping up and down the hulking sides of tree trunks and lower limbs just the way a nuthatch might. Though this warblers plumage is among the most striking and strongly contrasting of all warblers, it is nonetheless colorless.

This is the black-and-white warbler (Mniotilta varia) from the family of the wood-warblers, Parulidae

The black and white warbler’s unsteady and squeaky “wheelbarrow wheel” call is quite distinctive. Its plumage however, while equally loud, can sometimes be confused for the other primarily black and white warbler, the blackpoll. Be sure to look at the head. Where the blackpoll male has a crisp black cap, the black and white has strong stripes. Here comes that squeaky wheelbarrow again.

Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for our bird sounds. And thank you for tuning in to learn a new wild voice with Illinois Extension.