- Polioptila caerulea
Identification
Description
4 1/2 -5" (11-13 cm). Smaller than a sparrow. Tiny, slender, long-tailed bird, blue-gray above and white below, with white eye ring and broad white borders on black tail. Looks like a miniature [:Northern Mockingbird|mockingbird].
Distribution
Breeds from northern California, Colorado, southern Great Lakes region, southern Ontario, and New Hampshire southward to Guatemala. Winters from southern California, Gulf Coast, and Carolinas to Honduras and the Greater Antilles.
Taxonomy
Polytypic. Consists of eight subspecies.
Habitat
Deciduous woodlands, streamside thickets, live oaks, pinyon-juniper, chaparral.
Behaviour
Nesting
4 or 5 brown-spotted pale blue eggs in a small, beautifully made cup of plant down and spider webs, decorated with flakes of lichen and fastened to a horizontal branch at almost any height above ground.
Voice
Song is a thin, musical warble. Call note a distinctive, whining pzzzz, with a nasal quality.
