Black-and-white Warblers are quick-moving bark-foragers. They are one of our more common warblers, but they are hard to capture without a flash.
The binomial: the genus means moss-plucking, since they may use moss (and horsehair and grasses) to line their nests. Species epithet varia means varied, for the plumage.
Small bird, big tree. With a black throat and black lores, this is a male. Females have white throats and grayish lores.
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This work by Matthew Wills is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Backyard and Beyond 
Thanks for letting me see this lovely bird close-up, something I would have a difficult time doing in the city. Bringing nature closer to us is a great thing that you do.
Thanks, Susan! I’m not getting out much, but I’ve had good luck with a few of the recent warblers, which will be posted in coming days.
Hi Matthew,
Can you tell what the warbler is holding in his beak? It looks like something that might have been in those round holes in the bark.
Those mould be sapsucker holes, which might provide insects and spiders a place to put their eggs. There’s a lot of stuff tucked into bark.
Thanks.