Habitat
Within Alaska, predominantly along rivers, streams, or bogs in mixed or coniferous forests and tall shrub thickets (especially Salix alaxensis and Alnus incana) with black or white spruce (particularly in central Alaska) or mixed spruce-paper birch overstory (Betula papyrifera; Gabrielson and Lincoln 1959, Kessel 1989, McCaffery 1996, Kessel 1998, Cotter and Andres 2000). Also inhabits riparian areas and ecotones between treeline taiga and alpine or coastal tundra (Kessel 1998, Kessel and Gibson 1978). Breeding density highest in riparian habitats in western Alaska (McCaffery 1996, Harwood 2002). In B. C., breeds from 350 to 1100 m (Campbell et al. 2001). During a survey, BLPW was observed in black spruce bog, shrub swamp, boreal white spruce-balsam poplar riparian, and montane shrub-grassland in order of numbers observed. Within these habitats occupied wet edge habitat dominated by spruce or willow fingers of wet meadows (Enns and Siddle 1996).
References
Campbell, R. W., N. K. Dawe, I. McTaggart-Cowan, J. M. Cooper, G. W. Kaiser, A. C. Stewart, and M. C. E. McNall. 2001. The Birds of British Columbia. Volume 4. Passerines: wood-warblers through Old World sparrows. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver. 739 pages.
Cotter, P. A. and B. A. Andres. 2000. Breeding bird habitat associations on the Alaska Breeding Bird Survey: USGS, Biological Resources Division Information and Technology Report USGS/BRD/ITR-2000- 0010, 53 p.
Enns, K. and C. Siddle. 1996. The distribution, abundance, and habitat requirements of selected passerine birds of the boreal and taiga plains of British Columbia. British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands, and Parks, Wildlife Branch, Wildlife Working Report No. WR-76, Victoria. 44 pp.
Gabrielson, I. N. and F. C. Lincoln. 1959. The Birds of Alaska. The Stackpole Company, Harrisburg, PA and Wildl. Manage. Inst., Washington, D.C. 922 pp.
Harwood, C. M. 2002. 2002 Lower Yukon River Watershed Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). Unpublished report, USFWS Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.
Kessel, B. 1989. Birds of the Seward Peninsula, Alaska: their biogeography, seasonality, and natural history. Univ. of Alaska Press, Fairbanks, AK. 330 pp.
Kessel, B. 1998. Habitat characteristics of some passerine birds in western North American taiga. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks, AK.
Kessel, B., and D.D. Gibson. 1978. Status and distribution of Alaska birds. Studies Avian Biology. In: Studies in Avian Biology No. 1. R. J. Raitt, Ed. Cooper Ornithological Society. 1:1-100.
McCaffery, B.J. 1996. Distribution and relative abundance of gray-cheeked thrush (CATHARUS MINIMUS) and blackpoll warbler (DENDROICA STRIATA) on Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. Unpub. Report USFWS. Bethel, Alaska.
