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Northern Parula

Setophaga americana
Parulidae
Male starts singing during spring migration
No breast band in female plumage
Both with dorsal olive green patch, and white eye crescents
Hangs upside down and forages like chickadee
Its small size and preference for dense foliage ...
... makes it hard to see on breeding grounds
Male sings throughout breeding season to defend territory
Female builds nest for 2-7 eggs with only one of two epiphytes
Spanish moss used in southern forests and ...
... old man's beard lichen used in northern forests
Nest hangs like a purse from branch, sometimes over water
Male brings food to nestlings
Nestlings with yellow gape nearing adult size, soon to fledge
Juvenile already has white crescents around eye ...
... like its dad
Insectivorous while breeding, but during migration ...
... will feeds on seeds ...
... small fleshy fruits ...
... and even sips nectar

From 2002 through 2023, the Northern Parula has been recorded only twice at Salter Grove, during migration.  A male was seen singing on a newly leafing tree branch on Upland Trail in May 2019, and a female was observed in October 2020 feeding on the seeds of smooth goldenrods growing north of the parking lot.

It is one of the smaller warblers, and is usually hard to see during the breeding season because of its preference for gleaning insects in dense canopy foliage.  It is only during migration that it will drop down to lower vegetation for foods other than insects, like seeds, berries, and sometimes nectar.

The Northern Parula breeds in eastern North America from Florida to southern Canada and winters in Mexico, northern Central America, and the West Indies.  It will only nest in dense mature forests moist enough to support either of two epiphytes that grow loosely draped on tree branches.  In southern bottomland forest, it builds its pouch-like nests with wisps of Spanish moss, a plant related to the pineapple.  In northern forests, it uses Old man's beard, a branching and equally wispy lichen.

Due to its dependence on such specific nesting material, there is a gap in the breeding range of the Northern Parula.  It does not breed in the midwestern states, and is absent or scarce in much of southern New England, New York and New Jersey.  Habitat destruction combined with industrial pollution during the 19th century largely decimated the epiphytic plants essential for nest construction.

At present, there are conflicting trends in the reestablishment of breeding populations in southern New England where epiphytic lichens have regenerated to varying levels.  Nesting Northern Parulas have been recorded since 2015 in two swamp forests in Rhode Island, and these populations appear stable.  In contrast, whereas eight breeding locations were recorded for Massachusetts in 1978, only a few nesting pairs were observed at a single location on Cape Cod by 2019.

The Northern Parula will continue to be a regular migrant throughout the Northeast, however, because nesting individuals are common in suitable forests further north.