Saturday, May 31, 2008

Northern Parula


Can you see it? Warblers are very difficult to find once the leaves are fully out. The best time for capturing photos of them is just as the leaves are starting to open. I had heard this warbler each morning when I would go for my walk but I couldn't find it! Daily, for the past week I would stand in the meadow looking up into a tall, two storey sized tree at the edge of a huge stand of old Pines and scan the trees for a sight of it. Yesterday I determined to wait it out and finally when I detected movement among the leaves and blossoms I saw it! It was a Northern Parula! This beautiful little woods warbler was easy to identify once I could see it. Its white eye-arcs and the rufous breast band on the yellow throat easily sets it off from other warblers. This might be a male for the colour of the breast band suggests there may be black in it as well and this is a feature of the male of this species. Also characteristic of Northern Parulas is the yellow lower mandible or bottom part of its bill.

8 comments:

  1. Waht a beautiful little bird! I love the first shot of it hiding :-) I envy you all the lovely warblers you see! I have only seen 2 warblers ever! I guess I don't know where to go look for them and they aren't "feeder" birds. I've looked at the maps and there are several that I should be able to see around here...if I knew where to find them!

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  2. Anonymous1:04 PM

    Nice pictures, and I love the story - it's like I'm in the meadow looking for the bird too.

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  3. These are some fantastic pictures of a beautiful bird. I saw one once along the New River (with help from some bird experts). Your photos reminded me of that wonderful find. Joan

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  4. What a stunning birds and very nicely captured too.

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  5. mary:
    You can often hear warblers but they are not always that easy to see. They like high places and flit about among the leaves; I often just hope I can catch a flicker of movement which might led me to their location.

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  6. I love your pictures of this warbler. You are so right they are very hard to photograph. Many years ago before I got my camera I went one morning to observe the warblers just before the trees leafed out, and I saw many I didn't know even existed. Of course now that I have my camera, I find out how hard it is to photograph them. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. How beautiful! This would be a life bird for me!

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  8. This is so beautiful. Thanks for letting us take a walk with you.

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