Northern parula
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The northern parula (Setophaga americana) is a small New World warbler. It is migratory and breeds in eastern North America from southern Canada to Florida.<ref name=Curson/>
TaxonomyEdit
The northern parula was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the tits in the genus Parus and coined the binomial name Parus americanus.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Linnaeus based his account on "The Finch-Creeper" that had been described and illustrated in 1731 by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands.<ref>Template:Cite book Published in 11 parts. For the dates see: Template:Cite journal</ref> Linnaeus specified the type locality as northern America, but in 1931 this was restricted to South Carolina by the American Ornithologists' Union.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The northern parula was moved from the genus Parus to the genus Setophaga based on a molecular phylogenetic study of the Parulidae that was published in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=ioc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The species is considered to be monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.<ref name=ioc/> Northern parulas will occasionally hybridize with yellow-throated warblers, resulting in a hybrid species known as Sutton's warblers.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The genus name Setophaga is from Ancient Greek ses, "moth", and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "eating", and the specific americana is Latin for "American".<ref name =job>Template:Cite book</ref> The common name "Parula" ultimately derives from Latin parrula, Tit (bird).<ref name=OED>Template:Cite OED</ref>
DescriptionEdit
The northern parula is one of the smaller North American migratory warblers, often being one of the smallest birds in a mixed feeding flock besides kinglets or gnatcatchers. Length is Template:Convert, wingspan is Template:Convert and body mass is Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Among standard measurements, the wing chord is Template:Convert, the tail is Template:Convert, the bill is Template:Convert and the tarsus is Template:Convert.<ref name=Curson/> This species has mainly blue-gray upper parts, with a greenish back patch and two white wing bars. The breast is yellowish shading into the white belly. The summer male has bluish and rufous breast bands and prominent white eye crescents. At the end of the breeding season, individuals molt into a duller version of the breeding plumage. Females are similar-looking but tend to be duller and lack the breast bands.<ref name=Curson/> The unique breastband fades in males and may disappear altogether in females.
Its song is a click-like trill or buzz, zeeeeee-yip and the call is a soft chip.
Distribution and habitatEdit
This species is migratory, wintering in southern Florida, northern Central America, the West Indies and most of the Lesser Antilles. This species is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.<ref name=Curson>Template:Cite book</ref>
While the species is still common as a breeder across most of eastern North America, there are conspicuous gaps in their breeding range that were likely once breeding grounds. They have been extirpated as a breeder from much of the Midwest as well as from many areas in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. Explanations for the disappearance may be changes in habitat or increasing air pollution, which limited the growth of epiphytes on trees that the warbler depended on for nesting. A further explanation is the clear-cutting and bog draining that have significantly reduced the amount of suitable habitat in eastern North America.<ref name="Moldenhauer">Moldenhauer, R. R., and D. J. Regelski. 1996. Northern Parula (Parula americana). In The Birds of North America, No. 215 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists’ Union, Washington, D.C.</ref>
The northern parula inhabits various habitats depending on season and location. This is primarily a forest-dwelling species, but the northern and southern breeding populations select different habitats. In general, abundance of this species has been found to be positively correlated with increased tree species diversity, canopy height, and percent canopy cover. Northern populations breed in mature, moist coniferous forests. This species constructs its pendulum nests in hanging vegetation and so it is often attracted to suspended clumps of moss or coniferous twigs that are more abundant in moist spruce bogs or hemlock swamps. Southern populations breed in mature, moist, bottomland forest where Spanish moss is prevalent. Outside of the breeding season, the northern parula becomes more of a habitat generalist and may be found in a wide variety of habitats during migration and winter. These habitats may include: pastures; moist, dry or wet forests; and agricultural fields or plantations.<ref>Ehrlich, P., D. Dobkin, D. Wheye. 1988. The Birder's Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.</ref>
Behaviour and ecologyEdit
BreedingEdit
The northern parula is considered a monogamous species; however, a few cases of polygamy have been reported. Southern populations can start breeding as soon as March but in the north of the range, the species does not nest until May. The breeding habitat is humid woodland with growths of Old Man's Beard lichen or Spanish moss. Northern parulas nest in trees in clumps of these fungi (Old Man's Beard; Usnea) or plants (Spanish moss; Tillandsia usneoides), laying 3–7 eggs in a scantily lined cup nest. Sites located near water sources are preferred and many nests are found at the end of branches suspended over water. Due to their longer breeding season, southern parulas frequently raise two broods, as opposed to northern ones who raise only one. The female hollows out a clump of vegetation in the moss and proceeds to fill the cavity with vegetation fibers, animal hair, grass, or pine needles. These nests average Template:Convert in outside diameter. The incubation period typically lasts 12–14 days and the young fledge at 10–11 days. Breeding maturity is attained the following year.<ref name="Moldenhauer"/>
Food and feedingEdit
The northern parula forages mostly or entirely on terrestrial invertebrates. Prey items include spiders, damselflies, locusts, bugs, grasshoppers, aphids, beetles, caterpillars, flies, wasps, bees, and ants. Regardless of season, caterpillars and spiders are consumed most often. During the winter, the northern parula consumes more beetles and occasionally forages on berries, seeds, and nectar. This species primarily captures prey from vegetation by a hover-glean method, however this species is versatile in using a variety of foraging methods. It may make short flights from a perch to snatch prey in mid-flight or even hang upside-down to forage. It is most often seen foraging in the mid- to upper canopy levels of vegetation. Though most foraging activity occurs in arboreal vegetation, this species occasionally forages on or around the ground as well.<ref name="Moldenhauer"/>
A northern parula from Augusta, Georgia was found to be a host of an intestinal acanthocephalan worm, Apororhynchus amphistomi.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
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- Northern parula - Parula americana - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
- Northern parula species account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Template:Usurped (for Antigua, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Turks and Caicos Islands) with RangeMap at bird-stamps.org
- Template:VIREO