Northern Parula
The highlight of a walk this morning was seeing a tiny, colorful Northern Parula in the dense, leafy top of a young water oak. I’ve heard the quiet, buzzy songs of Northern Parulas around our back yard and in other places in the neighborhood fairly often this spring and early summer, but this is the first one I’ve seen in a while. They most often stay well hidden in the trees.
Because this one sounded so close, I stopped to look for it. The leaves in the treetop rustled – and the delicate little bird came into view for just a few very clear moments, looking like a feathered jewel. Blue gray head, and very yellow throat and breast, crossed by a dark, rusty-orange and black band; a white belly, a green patch on the upper back, and small, bright white bars on blue-gray wings. Its face was blue-gray with tiny white crescents framing each eye. It appeared to be gleaning insects or spiders from leaves or the small branches there, curled over them at times. And it was in constant motion. Not too fluttery, just quick moving and never still. At one point, it turned its head up, showing the deep-yellow throat and thin, sharp bill very well.
A Northern Parula is a small wood warbler, here during the spring and summer months. They spend winters in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. They’re most often found in forested areas, especially along streams, swamps and other wetlands, and their lives are intricately connected to forest vegetation. They suspend their nests in hanging clumps of mosses or lichens, from the end of a branch, very high above the ground.