The season has started - the waterfall in our garden is always a “bird magnet” and this weekend seems to be the start of the spring migration rush. On Saturday, as a bonus post, I shared a brief video of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker bathing in the tumbling water (the button below takes you to it) and we were visited by is a lovely Northern Parula checking out a somewhat less rambunctious portion of the cascade plus a White-crowned Sparrow in the dogwoods.
(There is more to learn below the photo)
The Northern Parula (Setophaga americana) - Dropped by for splash around the waterfall and its mossy rocks on the way back north after spending winter in Mexico or the Caribbean. The ones we see here breed in boggy areas of the boreal forest while a separate population breeds in the central and southern US. Nests in very high trees and feeds off insects and spiders which it picks off leaves.
Quote (Cornell): Northern Parulas have an odd break in their breeding range. They breed from Florida north to the boreal forest of Canada, but skip parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and some states in the Northeast. The reason for their absence may have to do with habitat loss and increasing air pollution, which affects the growth of moss on trees that they depend on for nesting.
The White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) is a bird we always look out for at this time of the year with their crisply marked cycling helmet to distinguish them from the White-throats. In this season it is heading far north to the latitude of Hudson’s Bay or further where they breed in open or shrubby habitats, such as tundra, high alpine meadows, and forest edges. Patches of bare ground and grasses are important.
The sharpness of the white crown is really striking isn’t it? The Parula is unknown in our parts.
I like that description of the White-crowned Sparrow and the cycling helmet.