From Opus

Male
Photo by ibera
Location: Esteros del Ibera, Argentina, April 2007

Parula pitiayumi

[edit] Identification

11 cm (4.3 ins). Blue-gray upperparts, green back patch, two white wingbars, yellow underparts, becoming orange on the breast. The male has a black patch from the bill to behind the eye. Females are slightly duller, and lack black on the head. The immature has dull plumage, lacks the wing bars, and has a gray band on the breast.

Female of the subspecies: P. p. nigrilora
Photo by HelenB
Vagrant bird found at Brazos Bend SP, south of Houston, Texas, USA, February 2009

[edit] Similar Species

Northern Parula is very similar, except it has white eye crescents, and the male does not have the black patch on the face.

[edit] Distribution

Southernmost Texas, northwest Mexico, south through Central America to northern Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia and Ecuador.

[edit] Taxonomy

There are 14 subspecies,¹ with a wide range of plumage tones.

• P. p. alarum (Chapman, 1924)
• P. p. cirrha (Wetmore, 1957)
• P. p. elegans (Todd, 1912)
• P. p. graysoni (Ridgway, 1887) - endemic to Socorro Island, in the Revillagigedo Islands, 386 km southwest of Cabo San Lucas
• P. p. inornata (S. F. Baird, 1864)
• P. p. insularis (Lawrence, 1871) - Tres Marías Islands, 100 km (60 miles) off the coast of the state of Nayarit, Mexico
• P. p. melanogenys (Todd, 1924)
• P. p. nana (Griscom, 1927)
• P. p. nigrilora (Coues, 1878) - Texas and eastern Mexico
• P. p. pacifica (Berlepsch & Taczanowski, 1884)
• P. p. pitiayumi (Vieillot, 1817)
• P. p. pulchra (Brewster, 1889) - western Mexico
• P. p. roraimae (Chapman, 1929)
• P. p. speciosa (Ridgway, 1902)

Male showing the distinctive green back patch
Photo by Jamfaraco
Location: Lages-SC, Brazil, April 2005

[edit] Habitat

Subtropical hill forests - coniferous and mixed, especially those with abundant spanish moss and near water.

[edit] Behaviour

The diet includes insects, spiders and occasionally berries.

They build a domed nest in clumps of epiphytes, especially Spanish moss, in a tree. 2 eggs are laid and are incubated by the female for 12-14 days. Common cowbird host.

[edit] References

1. ITIS

[edit] External Links