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Northern Parula

Parula americanaOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Wood Warblers (Parulidae)

Northern Parula Portrait_2
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General

Northern Parula: Small, compact warbler with blue-gray upperparts and bronze-green back patch. Throat and breast are yellow, breast band is chestnut-brown and black, and belly is white. White eye-ring is broken. Wings are blue-gray with two white bars. Tail is noticeably short. Female lacks breast band. Juvenile resembles female but has olive-green upperparts.

Range and Habitat

Northern Parula: Breeds from southeastern Canada to the Gulf coast and winters from southern Florida southward into the tropics. Preferred breeding habitat includes wet, chiefly coniferous woods, in swamps, and along lakes and ponds. More widespread during migration.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"chip", "tseep"

Interesting Facts

 The Northern Parula is one of only a few birds that nests in Spanish moss.

 Males have a dark bar across their yellow chest. No other warbler has any such marking.

 One of the smallest warblers, it was originally named the Blue Yellow-backed Warbler.

 A group of warblers has many collective nouns, including a "bouquet", "confusion", "fall", and "wrench" of warblers.



Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Northern Parula
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family Wood Warbler (Parulidae)_blue
Species Parula americana
Length4.25 Inches
Wingspan7 Inches

Northern Parula

Northern Parula: Small, compact warbler with blue-gray upperparts and bronze-green back patch. Throat and breast are yellow, breast band is chestnut-brown and black, belly and undertail coverts are white. White eye-ring is broken. Wings are blue-gray with two white bars. Tail is noticeably short.

● Song: "chip", "tseep"

● Foraging & Feeding: Northern Parula: Feeds on spiders, caterpillars, beetles, moths, ants, wasps, bees, flies, locusts, scale insects, plant lice, lacewings, and mayflies. Commonly gleans tips of foliage, small twigs, and branches high in the canopy; occasionally hovers or hangs upside-down on foliage, and sallies for aerial insects.

● Breeding & nesting: Northern Parula: Three to seven white eggs with brown flecks and splotches are laid in a basket-shaped nest woven from grass, bark, and vegetable fibers, and neatly hidden in Spanish moss in the south or in beard moss or Usnea lichens in the north. Incubation ranges from 12 to 14 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Northern Parula: Yellowthroats and Mourning warblers lack wing-bars. Tropical Parula lacks black on breast band and has blacker face; female and juvenile lack broken eye-rings and have more yellow on underparts.

Flight Pattern

Swift flight of short duration.
Northern Parula Body Illustration_2
● Range & Habitat: Northern Parula: Breeds from southeastern Canada to the Gulf coast and winters from southern Florida southward into the tropics. Preferred breeding habitat includes wet, chiefly coniferous woods, in swamps, and along lakes and ponds. More widespread during migration.
BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
Population
MigrationMigratory
Weight0.3 Ounces