Setophaga striata
Silhouette: Ekytza · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The blackpoll warbler (Setophaga striata) is a New World warbler. Breeding males are mostly black and white. They have a prominent black cap, white cheeks, and white wing bars. The blackpoll breeds in forests of northern North America, from Alaska throughout most of Canada, to the Adirondack Mountains of New York as well as New England in the Northeastern United States. They are a common migrant throughout much of North America. In fall, they fly south to the Greater Antilles and the northeastern coasts of South America in a non-stop long-distance migration over open water, averaging 2,500 km (1,600 mi), one of the longest-distance non-stop overwater flights ever recorded for a migratory songbird. Rare vagrants to western Europe, they are one of the more frequent transatlantic passerine wanderers.
The blackpoll warbler was formally described in 1772 by the German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster based on specimens collected near the Severn River on the west coast of Hudson Bay in Ontario, Canada. Forster placed the species in the genus Muscicapa and coined the binomial name Muscicapa striata. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "striated". The blackpoll warbler is... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vitória | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Boston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center and Woods Garden | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blackpoll Warbler sighting in Chicago on a given day, based on 4,441 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 88th most-seen of the 314 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Blackpoll Warbler in Chicago on a given day, against under 5% in June–August and October–April, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blackpoll Warbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 32 cities where we can rate Blackpoll Warbler sightings, Chicago ranks 3rd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Vitória (Brazil, about 10%) and New York City (United States, about 10%).
Same genus: Setophaga
The closest relatives of the Blackpoll Warbler that you can see in Chicago (genus Setophaga, Setophaga Warblers) are Yellow-rumped Warbler (about 30%), American Redstart (about 20%) and Yellow Warbler (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blackpoll Warbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Chicago (4,441 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
