Northern Parula: Bird Finder for September 25

by Andy Rzeznikiewicz
Manager of the Connecticut Audubon Society’s Northeast Sanctuaries

What It Looks Like: The Northern Parula is a beautiful small wood warbler with a yellow chest and a reddish band across it. Its hood and wings are bluish-gray, its back green. It has white crescents above and below the eyes and two white wingbars. At this time of year, most of the birds we see around here are immature. They lack the reddish band and often have more green on the upperparts.

Where and How to Find It: Northern Parula is primarily a migrant in Connecticut. September is one of the best times to find it, most often in mixed flocks of chickadees, vireos and other warblers. Carefully scan chickadee flocks; Northern Parula Warblers can be spotted gleaning insects off the leaves of maple, apple, and birch trees. Gray birch trees are among the best places in fall to find migrating warblers. The Northern Parula is easier to find in lower branches in the fall compared to canopy in spring. We have found several the past two weeks at the Connecticut Audubon Society’s Bafflin Sanctuary in Pomfret. Check along the trail across from the nature center or along Needles Eye Road.

What If the Bird Isn’t There? At this time of year various species of warblers and vireos will be in mixed flocks. Listen for the chirp of chickadees and scan for warblers mixed in. If you visit the Center at Pomfret, walk along Day Road and Needles Eye Road and glass the sparrows in the road feeding on smashed hickory nuts. Often Pine Warblers and bluebirds are joining them. Keep an eye to the sky for a migrating raptor such as a Merlin or Cooper’s Hawk.

Conservation Status: Northern Parula populations appear to be stable. They breed in epiphytic plants in the upper reaches of mature trees. Epiphytic plants are things like Spanish moss and lace lichen which grow on the trees themselves. Poor air quality has killed most of the quality epiphytic plants in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, so breeding there is not common.

Photo of breeding-plumage male Northern Parula, top, by Dan Pamaco; female Northern Parula by Dick Daniels; both from Carolinabirds.org