Parulidae
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Parulidae New World Warblers
Version: 1.1 — Published April 23, 2020
- Year-round
- Breeding
- Non-breeding
Introduction
These warblers of the New World have similar ecologies to Old World birds of the same name. Nowhere else, however, do warblers sport the diversity and stunning beauty of the parulids. Though a good many are tropical residents, almost half are long-distance migrants that breed in North America and spend the winter in the tropics. Recent phylogenetic analyses show that parulids originated from northern migrants rather than from the tropics. The northern migrants are more brightly colored in summer than in the fall, and birdwatchers can struggle to separate the many somberly clad species during fall migratory stopovers. Studies of warblers from the northeastern United States have taught us much about community ecology and about the physiological and ecological implications of small-landbird migration.
Habitat
In temperate North America, New World warblers have diverse habitat preferences, from marshes, shrubland, and old-field habitats to mature deciduous and boreal forests. Although most are arboreal, some species spend much of their time on the ground. In the Neotropics, warblers generally live in tropical moist forests, ranging from lowland rainforest to high-elevation cloud forest.
Diet and Foraging
Most New World warblers feed primarily on insects and other small invertebrates, with occasional small fish for waterside species. Some species also feed heavily on fruit or nectar during the non-breeding season.
Breeding
The New World warblers are socially monogamous with biparental care. Most species construct an open cup nest, which, in different species, may be placed anywhere from the ground to high in the canopy of tall trees. Many ground-nesting species build a domed nest with an entrance in the side, and there are two species that adopt tree holes for their nests. The two parulas (genus Setophaga) build their nests in a mass of moss or lichen. Females generally lay 2 to 7 eggs (with smaller clutches in tropical species and up to 9 eggs occasionally in northern species). Females generally construct the nest and incubate alone, and males often feed them during incubation. Incubation takes 11 to 17 days, on the small end of this range in the temperate species. Both male and female provision the young once hatched, and the young leave the nest after 8 to 15 days there; again, the nestling periods are on the shorter end of this range for temperate species. Temperate species feed their young for up to a month after fledging, but the young of tropical species often stay together with their parents in family groups until the following breeding season.
Conservation Status
Habitat loss threatens 24 species (22%) of parulids (10 NT, 6 VU, 6 EN, 2 CR). Two species, Bachman’s Warbler Vermivora bachmani and Semper’s Warbler Leucopeza semperi, have likely gone extinct in recent years, although both are officially listed as critically endangered. Bachman’s Warbler bred in bottomland hardwood forests of the southeastern United States, and declined due to habitat loss, whereas Semper’s Warbler was found only on St. Lucia in the Caribbean and likely suffered from predation by introduced mongooses. Of the endangered parulid species, all are range-restricted: Golden-cheeked Warbler Setophaga chrysoparia is limited to patches of scrubby oak-juniper woods in central Texas; Whistling Warbler Catharopeza bishopi is limited to mid-elevation primary rainforest on a single island in the Lesser Antilles, whereas Elfin-woods Warbler is likewise limited to high-elevation forests in Puerto Rico; Black-polled Yellowthroat Geothlypis speciosa occurs only in a few freshwater marshes in central Mexico; and Gray-headed Warbler Basileuterus griseiceps and Paria Redstart Myioborus pariae are restricted to a few different mountain sites in coastal Venezuela.
Systematics History
Parulidae is part of the New World nine-primaried oscine radiation of the superfamily Passeroidea. The exact position of Parulidae within this radiation is not fully resolved, although in many studies, a close relationship with Icteridae is recovered. Earlier genetic studies with fairly limited taxonomic sampling in the nine-primaried oscines found Parulidae as either sister to Icteridae (1), as sister to Calcariidae, which was in turn closely related to Icteridae (2), or as closely related to a group of families that included Icteridae and Emberizidae (3). A close relationship with Icteridae has also been supported in more recent, well-sampled studies, where Parulidae appears to be sister to Icteridae plus Icteriidae (4, 5). However, not all studies recover this relationship, with another recent study instead supporting a phylogeny where Parulidae was sister to a clade that included Icteridae, Icteriidae, Teretistridae, and Zeledoniidae (6).
Conservation Status
Least Concern |
70.4%
|
---|---|
Near Threatened |
8.7%
|
Vulnerable |
3.5%
|
Endangered |
5.2%
|
Critically Endangered |
1.7%
|
Extinct in the Wild |
0%
|
Extinct |
0%
|
Not Evaluated |
0%
|
Data Deficient |
0%
|
Unknown |
10.4%
|
Data provided by IUCN (2024) Red List. More information