(Mniotilta varia)

This is a boldly striped 5-1/4 inch black and white bird. The males throat and cheeks are black in breeding plumage, in winter, the chin is white. Females and immatures have gray cheeks, white throat. The immature female has buffy sides and undertail coverts. This bird is common in mixed woodlands.

The song of the black-and-white warbler has been compared to the sound of a squeaky wheelbarrow: it is a series of high, thin wee-see notes. The black-and-white does not behave like most other warblers, which flutter around twigs and leaves searching for plant lice, caterpillars, beetles, scale and other insects. This warbler finds its food by creeping around the trunks and large branches of trees. Indeed, it was at one time called the "black-and-white creeper."

The black-and-white lays 4-5 eggs that are greenish white to buff; spotted and blotched with brown. Their size is .7x.5 in. The eggs are laid in a nest made of strips of fine bark, lined with rootlets or hairs. The nest can be found on the ground, at the base of trees, logs or rocks.

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photo courtesy C.S. Robbins