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.

The genus name Setophaga is from the Ancient Greek ses, "moth", and phagos, "eating", and the specific striata means "striped".

[4] The summer male blackpoll warblers have dark-streaked brown backs, white faces, and black crowns.

In the southern portion of their breeding range, blackpoll warblers can be found on the higher elevations of mountains in woodland or brushy areas.

The species appears to be quite a generalist, preying on a great diversity of adult and larval insects and spiders.

Documented insect prey for the species includes lice, locusts, cankerworms, mosquitoes, webworms, ants, termites, gnats, aphids, and sawflies.

This is likely the reason that they are one of the later warblers to appear in spring migration, after one or more short overwater flights and a relatively prolonged movement overland through North America anytime from early May to mid-June.

[10] Part of the fall migratory route of the blackpoll warbler is over the Atlantic Ocean from the northeastern United States to the Greater and Lesser Antilles or northern South America.

Blackpolls can weigh more than 20 g (0.71 oz) when they leave the United States and lose 4 or more grams by the time they reach South America.

In 2013, 37 blackpolls from Vermont and Nova Scotia carried a miniaturized geolocator weighing 0.5 g with the harness on their back.

The device recorded light levels, from which longitudes and latitudes could be estimated, and in 2014 the scientists recovered five of the original 37.

Four of the five birds departed from western Nova Scotia between September 25 and October 21, and traveled at speeds between 10.7 and 13.4 meters per second.

When the flight distance per body mass was compared to other birds, only the ruby-throated hummingbird might travel more kilometres per gram (estimated around 210–280 km/g vs. 233 km/g for blackpolls).