New World Warbler

New World Warbler

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The New World warblers or wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful, passerine birds which make up the family Parulidae and are restricted to the New World. They are closely related to neither the Old World warblers nor the Australian warblers. Most are arboreal, but some, like the Ovenbird and the two waterthrushes, are more terrestrial. Most members of this family are insectivores.

It is likely that this group originated in northern Central America, which remains with the greatest diversity and numbers of species. From thence they spread north during the interglacial periods, mainly as migrants, returning to the ancestral region in winter. Two genera, Myioborus and Basileuterus seem to have colonised South America early, perhaps before the two continents were linked, and provide most warbler species of that region.

The scientific name for the family, Parulidae, originates from the fact that Linnaeus in 1758 named the Northern Parula as a tit, Parus americanus, and, as taxonomy developed, the genus name was modified first to Parulus and then Parula. The family name, of course, derives from that genus.