Synonyms: BLBW.
Conspicuous in adult male is a fiery orange throat, broad white wing patch, and triangular dark ear patch. Coloration in adult female and immature is more muted. The song is a short series of high notes followed by an ascending trill ending in a very high note.
Occurs throughout Maryland during spring and fall migration. Breeds in the western Maryland mountains. "Breeding birds are locally common in extensive stands of mature hemlock at elevations above 2,200 feet....It [Blackburnian] was undoubtedly common in the mature spruce forest that covered many Garrett County bogs before the close of the nineteenth century, but today so few mature spruces remain that the Blackburnian Warbler is confined largely to hemlock stands" (Robbins and Blom, 1996). Generally stays in the upper branches.
"The old-growth hemlock stand along the Youghiogheny River in Swallow Falls State Park [Garrett County] is one of the best places for finding Blackburnian Warblers.... [N]umbers [of breeding Blackburnians in Maryland] have almost certainly declined as mature spruce trees have been cut and fragmentation of mature eastern hemlock groves has continued.... [T]he Blackburnian does not defend territories with only one or two spruce trees; it requires extensive old-growth forest...." (Robbins and Blom, 1996). Brown-headed Cowbird parasitism is another major reason for the decline.
There are 325 records in the project database.
| GA | AL | WA | FR | CL | MO | HO | BA | BC | HA | CE | PG | AA | CV | CH | SM | KE | QA | CN | TA | DO | WI | SO | WO |
