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Northern Parula | Setophaga americana
Brilparulazanger | Parula norteña | Mariquita-do-norte
The Northern Parula is a small North American warbler that winters mainly in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In the guide area it is a rare winter visitor in northern Colombia. It closely resembles the resident Tropical Parula; the white eye-arcs are the best feature.
Voice
The call is a sharp tsip. The song, a rising, buzzy trill with a short, clipped ending, zzzzzzzzz-up, is seldom heard in winter.
Recording: Mario Reyes Jr — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11–11.5 cm, with a short tail. The upperparts are blue-grey, with a yellow-green mantle patch and two white wing bars. There is a white crescent above and below the eye. The throat and breast are yellow, the belly white. The male has a dark blue-black and rufous band across the breast; in the female this band is faint or absent. Young birds are duller and greener.
Confusion species
Tropical Parula Setophaga pitiayumi is a resident in the guide area; it lacks the white eye-arcs, the male has a blackish mask, and the yellow extends further over the belly and flanks, often with an orange tone on the breast. Cerulean Warbler Setophaga cerulea has a white throat or pale yellow underparts without a yellow breast, and no green mantle patch.
Habitat
In winter in forest edges, secondary forest, mangroves, dry forest, gardens and parks, mainly in the lowlands. It forages actively among the leaves in the middle and upper levels for insects and spiders, sometimes in mixed flocks. It does not breed in the guide area.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Rare winter visitor, mainly October to April. In Colombia mainly on the islands of San Andrés and Providencia, with a few records in the Caribbean lowlands and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. In Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos absent or at most an exceptional vagrant. Breeds in eastern North America and winters from Mexico to Central America and in the Caribbean.
How and when to look
In winter, check every parula in gardens and forest edges in northern Colombia and on San Andrés for white crescents around the eye and a green patch on the mantle.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The North American population is stable to increasing.
Scientific name
Setophaga americana | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Parus americanus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Setophaga was introduced in 1827 by Swainson. The genus name comes from Greek sēs (genitive sētos), 'moth', and -phagos, '-eating', so 'moth-eater'. The species name refers to America, not necessarily the type locality. The specimen the first description was based on came from South Carolina, United States.