• 

  Profile

• 

  In flight

Songbirds

Blackpoll Warbler

Setophaga striata

• epic
• 72 km/h
• Near Threatened

Flies nonstop over the Atlantic to South America, 1,800 miles without a landing. Your message is a record-setter.

Population

estimated ~59-60 million mature individuals globally, but declining steeply (BirdLife/Partners in Flight; Audubon cites ~60 million)

Habitat

Boreal coniferous forest and taiga (especially spruce) on the breeding grounds, extending nearer the tundra than any other warbler; during migration and winter uses deciduous trees, shrubs, mangroves, and dense woodland edge

Fun fact

The Blackpoll Warbler makes one of the longest nonstop overwater migratory flights of any songbird, flying an average of roughly 2,540 km nonstop over the open Atlantic (about 62 hours) from northeastern North America to South America each fall.

Range

Breeds from Alaska across most of Canada to the Adirondacks and northern New England; migrates largely over the western Atlantic Ocean; winters in the Greater and Lesser Antilles and along the northern coast of South America (e.g., Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Peru, and Amazonian Brazil)

Diet

Insects and other small invertebrates (caterpillars, aphids, gnats, ants, sawfly larvae, mosquitoes, lice, termites) gleaned from foliage; adds berries and fruit during migration and on the wintering grounds

Size

0.135 m

Wingspan

0.22 m

Lifespan

8 years