that of a Baltimore Oriole. It has no hole in the side but instead a
wide-mouthed opening at the top through which the bird entered it as the
Oriole enters her nest. The upper edges and sides were securely fastened
to the fine terminal twigs of a drooping branch where the nest hung
suspended among the evergreen foliage of the hemlock, precisely as the
Oriole's hammock swings in the dropping spray of an elm. The Warbler's
nest has a scanty lining of pine needles and fine grasses but it is
otherwise composed entirely of _Usnea_, loosely woven or perhaps merely
felted together, evidently by the parent birds. They must have been at
some pains to collect this material, for the closest scrutiny on the
part of a friend and myself failed to reveal more than a few small and
scattered tufts of _Usnea_ in the surrounding woods.
Henry Mousley (1924, 1926, and 1928), of Hatley, Quebec, made three
attempts to make complete studies of the home life of the northern
parula warbler, none of which covered the whole cycle for reasons beyond
his control.
The nests were suspended from the branches of coniferous trees, at
heights ranging from 26 feet in a spruce to 40 feet in a balsam fir. One
of these nests was watched for a total of 24 hours, from May 22 to 31,
during the process of construction; during this time the male sang 549
times from a little birch and went with the female to the nest, but
brought no material; the female, however, made 206 trips with material,
an average of one load every 5.4 minutes. The nest was made entirely of
_Usnea_, all brought in, and lined with "some black hair-like rootlets,
with two bits of plant down"; it was strengthened with a few fine grass
stems. It weighed only 100 grains, or .23 ounce! "Outside diameter 3.25,
inside 1.75 inches; outside depth 2.50, inside 1.75 inches. The female
after selecting some of the longest threads of the hanging bunch of
_Usnea_, attached them to a little twig a few inches off, following this
up with that curious process--inherent--of moulding the nest, which in
this case, was really an acrobatic performance, there being of course no
apparent nest to mould, just a few strands, through which the bird's
tail and wings protruded."
Outside New England, where _Usnea_ is scarce, the nests are often built
in hanging clusters of twigs of hemlocks or spruces, with the use of
more or less of this lichen when available. In the lower Mississippi
Valley, Spanish moss (_Tillandsia usneoides_) offers a popular
substitute and is generally found growing in profusion. But some nests
are built of various other materials. George H. Stuart, 3d, writes to me
of a nest he found at Pocono Lake, Pa., on June 22, 1916: "This
remarkable nest was placed in a horizontal limb of a spruce, 20 feet up
and 12 feet from the trunk, near the tip and overhanging a road near the
lake." It was "composed mainly of fine dry grasses and the thinnest of
bark shreds, with a few bits of down, fashioned together oriole-like,
though loosely, with a few coarse grasses projecting suggesting the
handiwork of the magnolia warbler. The tiny basket was suspended from
the under side of the branch, partially supported by inclining twigs. In
form it is an inverted cone or pear, measuring 3 inches deep by 3 inches
wide at the rim, the thin walls tapering down to a narrow, pointed
bottom. The thinness of the walls in places revealed the eggs from a
side view."
Mrs. Nice (1931) reports a curious nest, found by Mr. Kirn near Copan,
Okla.; it was fastened to ivy leaves and to a stick which was hanging
down, held by the vine. "In this hanging, swaying cluster about two feet
long, the nest was built almost entirely of box elder blossoms held
together by spider webs on the outside, and sycamore seed down on the
inside with a light lining of fine strips of weed stems."
Several nests have been reported as built of various materials in
bunches of leaves and other rubbish deposited by freshlets on branches
over streams.
Because of the bird's habit of using various materials and sites in its
nest building, it may be well to mention some nesting records from the
southern Gulf States. Andrew Allison wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907):
The invariable nesting site is a clump of Spanish moss--where this it to
be had; I have not observed nests from beyond the range of this plant.
The nest is generally placed near the branch from which the long
filaments of the 'moss' depend, so that it is well concealed. The height
from the ground varies from about eight feet upwards. * * * The nest is
nearly hemispherical in shape, opening directly upward. The usual
material, in lower Louisiana, is thistle down, which is abundant during
the nesting season. Animal hairs are not used, I think. A nest from Bay
St. Louis was composed of the very black horse-hair-like inner fiber
resulting from the decay of _Tillandsia_.
M. G. Vaiden writes to me that he found a nest near Belzoni, Miss., in a
heavy oak swamp where there were clusters of _Usnea_ on practically all
of the trees. The nest was 16 feet above the ground and 12 feet out on a
limb of an oak; it was made like our northern nests and lined with the
"moss" and fine rootlets. Another described in his notes was entirely
different. It was in a section of Mississippi where there was no _Usnea_
growing within 60 miles. The nest was 6 feet from the ground and 4 feet
out in the crotch of a limb of a hackberry tree. A pretty nest, it was
nicely constructed of leaves and bark from cypress trees, and was lined
with small rootlets and very fine twigs.
_Eggs._--The usual set for the northern parula warbler consists of 4 or
5 eggs; 3 sometimes constitute a full set, and as many as 6 or 7 have
been found in a nest; there are 3 sets of 7 in the J. P. Norris
collection. The eggs are ovate or short ovate, have only a slight gloss,
and are white or creamy white, speckled and spotted with shades of
"russet," "chestnut," "bay," and "auburn," with a few underlying spots
of "brownish drab." There is much variation; on some eggs the "brownish
drab" color is entirely lacking, while on others spots of this color are
the most prominent markings; again, the eggs may be almost immaculate,
or may have just a few indistinct freckles of "pale wood brown" at the
large end. The measurements of 50 eggs average 16.5 by 12.1 millimeters;
the eggs showing the four extremes measure =18.3= by 12.7, 16.9 by
=12.9=, =14.8= by 11.9, and 16.3 by =11.2= millimeters (Harris).
_Young._--The period of incubation does not seem to have been
determined, nor do we know how long the young remain in the nest.
Incubation of the eggs and brooding of the young is performed mainly by
the female, but the male assists in both to some extent. I have seen a
male leave a nest in which there were eggs; and Mr. Mousley (1924) saw a
male brood the young for a period of 4 minutes in the absence of the
female, but he left as soon as she returned. Both parents feed the
young. Mr. Mousley's table shows that during a watching period of 15
hours the male fed the young 45 times and the female fed them only 21
times; the average rate of feeding was once in 13.6 minutes; during this
time the male brooded once and the female 34 times, a total of 11 hours
and 27 minutes. He "noticed that the food the male brought consisted
almost invariably of soft green larvae, whereas, that of the female more
often than not consisted of insects, and the portions she brought were
usually smaller in proportion than those of her partner."
_Plumages._--Dr. Dwight (1900) says that the natal down is "smoke-gray."
The sexes are alike in the juvenal plumage, which Ridgway (1902)
describes as "above plain slate-gray, slightly tinged with olive-green;
middle and greater wing-coverts narrowly tipped with white; chin and
upper throat pale yellowish; lower throat, chest, sides, and flanks
plain light gray (intermediate between mouse gray and gray no. 6);
abdomen, anal region, and under tail-coverts white; remiges and
rectrices as in adults."
A postjuvenal molt, involving all the contour plumage and the wing
coverts but not the rest of the wings or the tail, begins about the
middle of July. This produces a first winter plumage in which old and
young birds are very much alike and the sexes are recognizable. The
young male differs little from the adult male, but the bluish gray of
the upper parts is more heavily tinged with olive-green, the yellow of
the under parts is duller, and the dark throat band is more or less
obscured by yellowish tips on the feathers. The young female differs
from the adult female in a similar way and is without any brown throat
band.
Dr. Dwight (1900) says that the first nuptial plumage is "acquired by a
partial prenuptial moult which involves chiefly the head, chin and
throat, but not the rest of the body plumage, the wings nor the tail.
The ashy blue crown feathers faintly dusky centrally, the blackish ones
of the sides of the head with a white spot above and below the eye and
the yellow or chestnut-tinged chin feathers as far as the pectoral band
or farther are assumed by moult. Wear brings the back into contrast with
the nape and whitens the lower parts. The wings and tail are browner and
more worn than in the adult, especially the primary coverts."
A first postnuptial molt in July and early August, which is complete,
produces the fully adult plumage. Fall males are similar to spring
males, but the blue areas are more or less tipped with greenish and the
throat bands with yellowish. Fall females differ in the same way from
the spring birds, and there is little, if any, chestnut and no blackish
in the throat band.
Subsequent molts and plumages are the same as described above for the
young birds.
Charles C. Ayres, Jr., writes to me of a bird he observed near Ottumwa,
Iowa: "It was a typical parula warbler with the exception that the
blue-gray color extended over the throat and terminated abruptly on the
upper breast. Immediately below the termination of the blue-gray color
was the well-defined orange-brown breast band, below which the rest of
the breast was yellow."
_Food._--The parula warbler is almost wholly insectivorous. Its food is
mainly obtained in the deciduous trees, where it is often seen among the
branches and twigs or hanging downward under a cluster of leaves or
blossoms like a chickadee searching for small insects, beetles, flies,
moths, larvae, and egg clusters. Some flying insects are taken on the
wing; and occasionally the bird may be seen feeding on the ground.
Dr. Wetmore (1916) reports on the contents of 61 stomachs from Porto
Rico, which contained 97.7 percent animal matter and only 2.3 percent
vegetable matter. The latter "consisted of seeds of small berries of the
camacey (_Miconia prasina_) and others." In the animal food, beneficial
insects and a large number of spiders amounted to about 35 percent, and
the remainder were all harmful pests. "Lantern flies (Fulgoridae) (19.09
percent) were identified in 29 stomachs. * * * Other bugs (3.69 percent)
comprise small numbers of leaf bugs, species of the chinch bug family,
stink-bugs, and a few predaceous assassin bugs. The birds are fond of
beetles, and this order supplies 22.53 percent of the food, nearly all
being injurious species. Ladybird beetles (1.36 percent) were present in
14 stomachs. Longicorn beetles (1.68 percent) were taken 11 times, and
leaf beetles of several species (7.95 percent) were eaten by 30 of these
birds." Other beetles taken included darkling beetles, skin beetles,
scarred-snout weevils, coffee leaf-weevils, stalk borers, and curculios.
Among other items were a few ants and other small Hymenoptera (3.57
percent) and flies (1.19 percent). Caterpillars were found in 18
stomachs and moths in 4. Spiders (29.53 percent) were identified in 29
stomachs. Stuart T. Danforth (1925), from Puerto Rico, adds berries of
_Varronia angustifolia_ and fleabeetles, and says that large moth eggs
were eaten by two birds, forming 25 percent of their food. Forbush
(1929) says that "it feeds much on small hairless inch-worms, such as
the fall canker-worm and the spring canker-worm, and on the younger and
smaller hairy caterpillars, such as the gipsy and the tent caterpillar."
_Behavior._--The parula warbler is less active in its movements, more
sedate and deliberate, than most of the other tree-top wood warblers.
It creeps along the branches and hops from twig to twig, often clinging
to the under side of a cluster like a chickadee, an action that led some
of the early writers to refer to it as a small titmouse, and it
sometimes clings to the trunk of a tree like a nuthatch in its search
for food. The birds are fearless and confiding, and are easily
approached. Even when their nest is disturbed they come within a few
feet of the intruder, making little, if any, protest or demonstration.
George B. Sennett (1878) tells the following story, illustrating the
confiding nature of the bird:
Just before we sighted land, imagine our surprise and joy to see a
little Blue Yellow-backed Warbler on our mast. It soon flew down to the
sail and thence to the deck, where, after a few moments, it felt quite
at home. Our sailor caught him, and he was passed around for all to
admire and pet. It would nestle in our hands and enjoy the warmth
without the least fear. When allowed his freedom, he would hop upon us,
fly from one to another, and dart off over the side of the boat as if
taking his departure; when lo! back he would come with a fly or moth he
had seen over the water and had captured. Several flies were caught in
this way. He searched over the whole boat and into the hold for insects.
Often he would fly to one or the other of us, as we were lying on the
deck, and into our hands and faces, with the utmost familiarity. He
received our undivided attention, but could have been no happier than
we. Upon reaching shore, amid the confusion of landing we lost sight
forever of our pretty friend.
_Voice._--The parula warbler has a simple, but to my ears a very
distinctive, song. In 1900 I recorded the song in my notes as
"_pree-e-e-e-e-e-e, yip_, a somewhat prolonged trill like a pine
warbler's, but fainter and more insect-like, ending abruptly in the
short _yip_ with a decided emphasis." I have always been able to
recognize it by the explosive ending, which I never heard from any other
wood warbler.
Gerald Thayer wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907) as follows:
The Parula is weak-voiced, and its call notes, as far as I know, are
slight and barely peculiar; but it has at least three main songs, with
great range of variations.
All may be recognized, or at least distinguished from the weak songs of
the _Dendroicae_, like the Blackburnian and Bay-breast, by their beady,
buzzy tones. In phrasing, in everything but tone-quality, certain
variations of the Parula's and of the Blackburnian's songs very nearly
meet and overlap; but the tell-tale tones remain unchanged,--wheezy and
beady in the one, smooth as glass in the other. Commonest of the
Northern Parula's three main songs is probably the short, unbroken buzz,
uttered on an evenly-ascending scale, and ending abruptly, with a slight
accentuation of the final note. Next is that which begins with several
notes of the same beady character, but clearly separated, and finishes,
likewise on an ascending scale, with a brief congested buzz. The third
main song is based on an inversion of the second--a buzz followed by a
few separate drawled notes, high-pitched like the buzz-ending of the two
other songs. All these vary and intervary perplexingly.
Aretas A. Saunders contributes the following notes on the song of this
warbler: "The parula warbler has two distinct types of song. One is a
simple buzzy trill rising in pitch, and frequently terminated by a
short, sharp note of lower pitch. Of 12 records of this song, 7 have the
terminal note and 5 do not. The other form has the same buzz-like
quality, but begins with three or four short notes on the same pitch,
followed by a longer, higher note that is frequently, but not always,
slurred upward. Both songs are similar in length and in pitch intervals.
They vary from 1-1/5 to 1-3/5 seconds in length. The rise in pitch
varies from one to four and a half tones, and averages about two tones.
The actual pitch is exceedingly variable in individuals and varies from
A´´´ to D´´´´´. Songs vary considerably in loudness, many of them
becoming suddenly louder toward the end.
"The species sings throughout migration, and on the breeding grounds
till late July. At that season I have seen males still singing while
feeding young just out of the nest."
_Enemies._--Dr. Friedmann (1929) writes; "This bird is practically free
from that greatest enemy of most of the warblers, the Cowbird.
Occasionally, however, parasitic eggs are found in the dainty pensile
nests of the Parula Warbler. Stone found a nest on May 26, 1892, at Cape
May Point, New Jersey, containing three eggs of the Warbler and one of
the Cowbird. * * * Five other records have come to my notice, from Long
Island, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, and the bird is listed
as a victim of the Cowbird by several writers, as Bendire, Davie, and
Chapman." Mrs. Nice (1931) records two more cases in Oklahoma.
Harold S. Peters (1936) records two lice, _Myrsidea incerta_ (Kellogg)
and _Ricinius_ sp., as external parasites on this species.
_Field marks._--The parula, is one of our smallest warblers. The adult
male is well marked, with its blue upper parts, the yellow back being
inconspicuous, two conspicuous white wing bands, black lores, yellow
breast and chestnut or blackish throat band. The female is duller in all
colors, more greenish above and has little or no throat band. Young
birds are even less conspicuously marked, as noted in the description of
plumages.
_Fall._--As soon as the young are strong on the wing the family parties
desert their breeding grounds, and after the molting season is finished
they resort to the deciduous woods and join the migrating hosts of
warblers and other small birds drifting southward through the tree-tops
or along the roadside shade trees. The fall migration is apparently a
reversal of the springtime routes, as they travel to their winter haunts
in Mexico and the West Indies. Professor Cooke (1904) says that this
warbler "passes through Florida in countless thousands, being second
only to the black-throated blue warbler in the frequency with which it
strikes the lighthouses. * * * By the middle of September the great
flights begin and continue in full force for a month."
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Southern Canada to Nicaragua and the West Indies.
_Breeding range._--The Parula warbler breeds =north= to southern
Manitoba (Shoal Lake and Caddy Lake); central Ontario (Off Lake,
Rossport, and Lake Abitibi); and southern Quebec (Lake Timiskaming, Blue
Sea Lake, Gaspé Peninsula, and Anticosti Island). =East= to Anticosti
Island (Fox Bay); Prince Edward Island (Tignish); Nova Scotia (Halifax
and Yarmouth); and the Atlantic coast south to central Florida (Deer
Park, Lake Gentry, and St. Lucie). =South= to central Florida (St.
Lucie, Bull Creek Swamp, and Tarpon Springs) and the Gulf coast to
south-central Texas (Houston and San Antonio). =West= to central Texas
(San Antonio and Kerrville); eastern Oklahoma (Caddo, red Oak, and
Copan); eastern Kansas (Neosha Falls, Topeka, and Leavenworth); central
Iowa (Des Moines); north-central Minnesota (Cass Lake and Itasca); and
southeastern Manitoba (Shoal Lake).
_Winter range._--The parula warbler winters =north= to southern
Tamaulipas (Tampico); occasionally southern Florida (Tarpon Springs,
Sanibel Island, and Miami); the Bahamas Islands (Nassau and Caicos);
Hispaniola (Tortue Island and Samaná); Puerto Rico; the Virgin Islands
(St. Thomas); and the Lesser Antilles (Saba). =East= to the Lesser
Antilles (Saba, St. Christopher, Guadaloupe, and Barbados). =South= to
the Lesser Antilles (Barbados); Jamaica (Kingston); and Nicaragua (Río
Escondido). =West= to Nicaragua (Río Escondido); El Salvador (Barra de
Santiago); western Guatemala (San José and Escuintla); southern Oaxaca
(Tehuantepec); Veracruz (Tlacotalpan); and Tamaulipas (Tampico).
The above range is for the species as a whole, of which two geographic
races are recognized: the southern parula warbler (_P. a. americana_)
breeds in southeastern United States from Maryland southward, east of
the mountains; the northern parula warbler (_P. a. pusilla_) breeds in
the western and northern portion of the range.
_Migration._--Late dates of spring departure from the winter home are:
El Salvador--Barra de Santiago, April 18. Guatemala--San José, March 7.
Yucatán--San Felipe, April 4. Virgin Islands--St. Croix, April 30.
Puerto Rico--Mayagüez, May 7. Haiti--Port au Prince, April 4.
Cuba--Habana, May 4. Bahamas--Cay Lobos, May 14.
Early dates of spring arrival are: Florida--Daytona Beach, March 3.
Alabama--Coosada, March 25. Georgia--Savannah, March 8. South
Carolina--Frogmore, March 5. North Carolina--Washington, March 26.
West Virginia--Bluefield, April 9. District of Columbia--Washington,
April 6. Pennsylvania--Carlisle, April 25. New York--Shelter Island,
April 23. Massachusetts--Stoughton, April 25. Vermont--St. Johnsbury,
April 21. Maine--Portland, April 29. Nova Scotia--Wolfville, May 8.
New Brunswick--St. Stephen, May 9. Quebec--Quebec, May 10.
Louisiana--New Orleans, February 15. Mississippi--Bay St. Louis,
March 5. Arkansas--Helena, March 24. Tennessee--Athens, April 3.
Kentucky--Eubank, April 4. Indiana--Bloomington, April 21.
Ohio--Columbus, April 28. Michigan--Ann Arbor, April 29. Ontario--Toronto,
May 2. Missouri--Columbia, April 5. Iowa--Grinnell, April 28.
Wisconsin--Madison, April 30. Minnesota--Red Wing, May 5. Texas--Hidalgo,
March 5. Oklahoma--Caddo, March 25. Kansas--Independence, April 8.
Nebraska--Havelock, April 20.
Late dates of fall departure are: Minnesota--St. Paul, October 5.
Wisconsin--Milwaukee, October 9. Missouri--St. Louis, October 5.
Ontario--Point Pelee, October 5. Michigan--Grand Rapids, October 19.
Ohio--Toledo, October 19. Indiana--Richmond, October 14.
Tennessee--Nashville, October 3. Arkansas--Monticello, October 2.
Louisiana--Covington, October 26. Mississippi--Gulfport, November 2.
Quebec--Hatley, September 30. New Brunswick--Scotch Lake, September 28.
Maine--Portland, October 24. New Hampshire--Hanover, October 11.
Massachusetts--Rockport, October 25. New York--Rhinebeck, October 21.
Pennsylvania--Berwyn, October 26. District of Columbia, Washington,
October 17. West Virginia--French Creek, October 1. Virginia--Lynchburg,
October 17. North Carolina--Rocky Mount, October 23. South
Carolina--Charleston, October 22. Georgia--Athens, November 4.
Florida--Gainesville, November 19.
Early dates of fall arrival are: Bahamas--Watling Island, September 28.
Cuba--Habana, August 10. Dominican Republic--San Juan, October 21.
Puerto Rico--Parguera, September 19. Nicaragua--Río Escondido, October
20. Costa Rica--Villa Quesada, October 24.
_Banding._--Only a single migration record is available from banded
birds. A parula warbler banded as an adult at Flushing, Long Island, New
York, on September 16, 1946, was found dead about October 1, 1947, at La
Grange, Maine.
_Casual records._--The parula warbler has been recorded three times in
Colorado (in El Paso County, at Kit Carson, and at Denver); and three
times in Wyoming (once at Cheyenne and twice at Torrington).
_Egg dates._--Massachusetts: 52 records, May 20 to July 7; 29 records,
May 29 to June 10, indicating the height of the season.
Connecticut: 39 records, May 25 to June 25; 25 records, June 1 to 10.
South Carolina: 20 records, April 10 to June 24; 10 records, April 30 to
May 11.
PARULA AMERICANA AMERICANA (Linnaeus)
SOUTHERN PARULA WARBLER
PLATE 22
HABITS