zipppppp-pa

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Northern parula, photo by by Dan Pancamo

Eliot phoned last night to report that a wave of Northern parulas were in the trees around their apartment yesterday afternoon.

Parula simply means a member of the family Parulidae, (par-you-LIE-dee), i.e. New World wood warbler, an American group that is not related to either the Old World warblers or the Australian warblers. Fact is, someone got it wrong, they are not warblers at all. Go figure.

On an artist's palette, parula blue is a grayish blue that is redder and paler than electric blue, greener and paler than Copenhagen blue.

Its Latin name, Parula americana, was given to it by Linnaeus himself in 1758.

Even though they do not warbler, Northern parulas do have an interesting song, it's something like a clicking trill that ends with a definitive zipppppp-pa!

Here's a snippet of video taken by Garth McElroy:

 

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