- Polioptila dumicola
Identification
Blue-grey above, lighter grey below, black wings edged white, black tail with white outer feathers. The male has a black mask bordered below by a thin white line while the female has a much narrower black area, a white eyering and white cheeks and lores.
Distribution
Photo © by Stanley Jones
Capilla del Monte, Cordoba Province, Argentina, 5 October 2019
This species is found in South America in the countries of Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.
Taxonomy
This is a polytypic species[1] consisting of 3 subspecies:
- P. d. berlepschi
Interior eastern Brazil (northern Goias, southeastern Para to Mato Grosso) and eastern Bolivia
- P. d. dumicola
Extreme southern Brazil to Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern Argentina
- P. d. saturata
Highlands of Bolivia (Cochabamba)
Race P. d. berlepschi is much paler with different vocalizations and may be a separate species.
Habitat
Light woodland, gallery woodland and scrub.
Behaviour
Forages for small insects mostly in tree canopy. In mixed flocks during non breeding season but often in pairs during breeding season. Usually hops on branches and twigs searching for prey on nearby foliage mostly by gleaning. Said to be permanently monogamous. The nest is a small deep cup of vegetable fibres, spider webs, with lichens attached to the outer wall, thus resembling some hummingbird nests. Clutch is 3–5 eggs, usually just 3. Incubation and care of young by both sexes. Young reported to remain with parents for 6–7 months, much longer than known for any other gnatcatcher.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Atwood, J. L. and S. B. Lerman (2020). Masked Gnatcatcher (Polioptila dumicola), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.masgna1.01
- Lepage D. (2021) [Avibase - https://avibase.ca/B47F0D81]. Retrieved 24 August 2021
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Masked Gnatcatcher. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 3 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Masked_Gnatcatcher
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
