June 29 OOTD: Northern Parula!

Today’s OOTD is the first (and only!) iNaturalist identification of this member of Aves on the Merck Forest property, and our first bird as OOTD! The Northern Parula (Setophaga americana) is a small, blueish gray warbler with yellow highlights that hops around in the upper canopy plucking insects. The genus Setophaga is derived from Ancient Greek words meaning “moth” and “eating” which is well-suited for this organism. It, and other members of the genus Setophaga, has speciated through adaptive radiation, where the closely related species have developed different feeding techniques and often feed on insects in different parts of the canopy. (Source)

Many birds, especially quick, small warblers like the Northern Parula, are difficult to capture with a smart phone, which is probably why iNaturalist isn’t the most popular way to document birds. However, for wildlife photographers amateur or professional, BioBlitzes are a perfect intersect between hobby, profession, and science. If you enjoy the hunt of capturing photos of these elusive animals, make Merck Forest’s BioBlitz 2021 an excuse to do that while contributing to citizen science!

For individuals concerned with licensing, do not be worried! While logged into iNaturalist, follow this link and update your profile to the licensing settings that fit your needs.

The more popular portal for logging bird observations is eBird. Although Merck Forest’s Conservation Team isn’t taking BioBlitz data from eBird (yet!), we will provide information and modest support to help participants use eBird during BioBlitz 2021. Keep an eye on the Facebook Event discussion board and the iNaturalist Project Journal page between now and BioBlitz 2021 (July 24th and 25th) for those materials!

You can check out all the iNaturalist bird photography observations on Merck Forest’s property here.

We hope to see you July 24th and 25th for Merck Forest’s BioBlitz 2021!

Links
Merck Forest Website Event Page
Merck Forest Registration Page
iNaturalist Project Page
Facebook Event Page

Posted on June 29, 2021 01:42 PM by maxmiley