Townsend's warbler has a yellow face with a black stripe across its cheeks extending into an ear patch, a thin pointed bill, two white wing bars, olive upperparts with black streaks on their backs and flanks, and a white belly.

[8]Their breeding habitats are coniferous forests with large trees on the northwestern coast of North America.

[10] This bird is closely related to the hermit warbler, and the two species interbreed where their ranges overlap.

[8] Birds from Haida Gwaii migrate short distances further south on the Pacific coast.

In winter, they also eat berries and plant nectar,[10] and honeydew directly from the anus of scale insects.