Northern Parula Warbler 



{Compsothlypis americana usneae) 



Range : Breeds mainly in Transition and Austral Zones, from eastern 

 Nebraska, northern Mninesota, central Ontario, and Anticosti and Cape Breton 

 Islands, south to central southern Texas, southern Louisiana, Alabama, Vir- 

 ginia, and Maryland; winters probably in the Bahamas and West Indies to Bar- 

 bados, and from Vera Cruz and Oaxaca to Nicaragua. 



The northern parula, smallest of our warblers, with prevaihng colors blue 

 and yellow, is generally distributed during migration and usually found in com- 

 pany with other warblers in leafy trees, which it explores from the lower to the 

 topmost branches. It is one of the most active of the tribe, and is untiring in 

 its pursuits of the minute insects which form its food. Its habit of hanging 

 head downward as it explores a cluster of blossoms suggests a chickadee, and 

 the little fellow is a combination of warbler, kinglet, and chickadee. It is very 

 partial to nesting in usnea moss and so is found in summer along streams or 

 in swampy localities where long streamers of the usnea festoon the trees. The 

 preference of the parula for this moss as a site for its nest is exemplified by a 

 nest I once found in Maryland on the bank of the Potomac, which had been 

 built in the frayed end of an old rope hanging to a sapling and which a short 

 distance away looked to me — and no doubt to the bird — exactly like a clump 

 of usnea. As no usnea occurred in this locality, the bird accepted the frayed 

 rope as a satisfactory substitute, and in so doing followed the spirit if not the 

 letter of family tradition. However, the parula is not strictly limited to usnea 

 for a nesting site and I once saw a pair carrying shreds of bark into a juniper 

 on an island in the Potomac River, the nest being already far advanced toward 

 completion. The parula has a short, buzzing song of which it is prodigal enough, 

 but it is weak and can be heard at no great distance. 



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