Spring Migratory Birds: Northern Parula

Northern Parula. Photo by Gilles Carter.

April 26, 2022 — The Daily Bird is alive and well, brought back to celebrate spring migration and to prepare us all for the 2022 Migration Madness Birdathon. We have about two dozen set to go. If you’d like to receive them via text, sign up at the bottom.

We start with Northern Parula, written by Connecticut Audubon Executive Director Patrick Comins. Videos by Gilles Carter, a member of Connecticut Audubon’s Board of Directors.

Northern Parula
Setophaga americana

by Patrick Comins, Executive Director of the Connecticut Audubon Society
The Northern Parula is a regular migrant through Connecticut from late April through May. Since it does nest regionally it can show up well into June as they sort out nesting territories. Most often they seem to select riparian habitat for nesting attempts.

They are one of our most common and widespread migrants and can be found almost anywhere in the state in migration.

Their distinctive song — a high pitched, buzzy series of incremental rises in pitch with a quick decrease in pitch at the end — is very helpful in locating these tiny warblers.

They are regular at our Birdcraft Sanctuary in Fairfield throughout much of May, and can be found really at any of our sanctuaries. But the small size of Birdcraft often allows for better viewing of warblers than most other places in the state.

Male parulas sport a blue-gray back with a greenish-yellow patch on the back. The throat is yellow, above a black and brown breast band. Females, which lack the breast markings, tend to migrate later than males, but are often overlooked because they do not sing. Both male and female have white crescents above and below the eye.

Northern Parula photographed at Birdcraft Sanctuary by Patrick Comins.

Northern Parula was once one of the most common nesting birds in Connecticut. One swamp in Norwich alone was noted as hosting 30 breeding pairs in the late 19th century. They were entirely extirpated as nesters in the first half of the 20th century. It has been hypothesized that air pollution may have impacted the lichens they require to build their nests.

However, they appear to be colonizing the state again as a nesting species and it will be interesting to see if the Connecticut Bird Atlas is able to confirm their nesting in Connecticut.