Tropical Parula

The tropical parula is about 11 cm (4.3 in) long and weighs 6.5 to 8.0 g (0.23 to 0.28 oz). Adult males of subspecies S. p. nigrilora have a mostly blue-gray head with black lores and a small black mask. Their upperparts are also mostly blue-gray with an olive mantle. Their wings are blue-gray with white tips on the greater and median coverts that show as two wing bars. Their tail is blue-gray with large white spots near the ends of the feathers. Their throat and underparts to the belly are yellow with a strong orange wash on the lower throat, upper breast, and flanks. Their belly and undertail coverts are white. Adult females are similar to males but overall duller. They lack the black mask and have little or no orange on the underparts. Immature birds resemble adult females but with more greenish upperparts, duller underparts, and faint or no wing bars. Males of the other subspecies of the tropical parula differ from S. p. nigrilora and each other thus:

S. p. pulchra: somewhat larger; wider wing bars and rusty to pale chestnut flanks S. p. insularis: largest subspecies; grayish lores, wider wing bars, rusty to pale chestnut flanks, and smaller tail spots S. p. graysoni: grayer overall, paler yellow breast and flanks with little to no orange, and white of tail only on edge of inner webs S. p. …

The tropical parula is found in almost every mainland country of the Americas and on several islands as well. It is essentially absent from the Amazon Basin. The subspecies are found thus:

S. p. nigrilora: from the Edwards Plateau and upper Gulf of Mexico coast of Texas south along Mexico's Sierra Madre Oriental to eastern San Luis Potosí and northern Veracruz S. p. pulchra: Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental from Chihuahua and southern Sonora south to Oaxaca S. p. insularis: Tres Marías Islands off western Mexico's Nayarit S. p. graysoni: Socorro and Revillagigedo Islands off western Mexico S. p. inornata: from southern Mexico's southern Veracruz and Chiapas south intermittently through Guatemala and much of Honduras. It occurs in Belize and El Salvador as a vagrant. From Honduras its range continues through Nicaragua and the Caribbean and Pacific slopes of Costa Rica into western Panama. It also occurs from Darién Province in eastern Panama into northwestern Colombia. S. p. cirrha: Coiba Island off the Pacific coast of Panama S. p. pacifica: Pacific slope of the Andes from Nariño Department in southwestern Colombia south through Ecuador into northwestern Peru to Cajamarca Department; also through central Peru from Junín Department and into western Bolivia's La Paz and Cochabamba departments S. p. …

The tropical parula feeds mostly on larval and adult insects. It also feeds on other arthropods, berries, and the sweet excretions of plant lice. It takes most prey by gleaning from foliage but has been observed taking winged termites in mid-air. In much of its range during the breeding season it forages mostly in the forest sub-canopy and canopy. In the non-breeding season it often forages in the understory, "possibly because of interactions with Neotropical migrants". It typically forages singly or in pairs during the breeding season. In the non-breeding season it often joins mixed-species feeding flocks.