This Northern Parula Warbler was easy to see flitting in the low and leafless branches here on May 5. (Sex assumed.) But soon, he and his kind will be virtually invisible in the leafy tree tops.

A Parula is just a little bigger than a credit card. From below, it\ looks like a bit of the bright sky; from the side, it looks like a dapple of sunlight in blue-gray shadows:

John James Audubon named these birds Blue Yellow-Backed Warblers for easy identification. However, later name-givers, who gave little thought to encouraging public bird identification, had a "better" idea. They thought that these birds looked like titmice (genus Parus); so, they gave these warblers the little understood Latin name Parula (“little titmice”).

This Northern species lives mostly in the United States and Canada, while the yellower Tropical Parulas live mostly in Central and South America. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Latin Lingo