| The Parula is blue above with green back patch and bold, white wing bars. Undersides are white with a yellow breast yellow with a variable wash of burnt red. Their is a broken white eyering that can be seen above and below the eye. The song is a buzzy, ascending trill ending with an explosive lower note.
The Parula breeds in open coniferous and mixed woods that are laden with lichen, which is used in building its nests. The breeding range encompasses the eastern half of the United States and Canada along the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway. In the north the Northern Parula is associated with moist boreal forests. Southern populations prefer wet hardwood forests. In the winter, the parula will migrate primarily in the West Indies but can also found on the mainland in south Florida and Central America. Spring migration may begin as early as mid-February. The Parula typically arrives in late March in the Carolinas, and mid-May in their northernmost breeding grounds.
The clutch consists of 4 or 5 white eggs spotted with reddish-brown and placed in a hanging pocket of grass, bark, and vegetable fibers woven into Spanish moss in the south or beard moss in the north. The species is largely dependent upon the presents of Spanish or beard moss for nesting sites and will often return to the same site in successive years. The eggs are incubated by both parents for about 13 days and are cared for by both parents after they hatch.
The Parula diet is made up almost entirely of insects. It actively hovers and gleans from foliage and occasionally from the ground.
Current populations appear stable. Historically, populations of Northern Parula in the Great Lakes region and mid-Atlantic suffered severe declines due to loss of lichens caused by air pollution.
Length: 4 1/2 inches.
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