Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - BirdForum Opus

Male
Photo by gophish.
Vischer's Ferry, New York, USA

Polioptila caerulea

Identification

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.

Similar Species

Non-breeding (Eastern)
Photo by bobsofpa
Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, USA, February 2007

Looks like a miniature 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

Subspecies

This is a polytypic species, consisting of eight subspecies^[1]:

• P. c. caerulea (Eastern):

• Eastern and central US to Gulf Coast; winters to north-eastern Mexico and West Indies

Western Group

Juvenile
Photo by KC Foggin
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, July 2008

• P. c. amoenissima:

• South-western Oregon to northern Baja and northern Mexico; winters to southern Mexico

• P. c. obscura:

• Southern Baja California (28°N to Cape District)

• P. c. gracilis:

• Foothills of north-western Mexico (south-eastern Sonora)

• P. c. nelsoni:

• Southern Mexico (Guerrero to Oaxaca and southern Chiapas)

• P. c. deppei:

• Eastern Mexico (San Luis Potosí to Veracruz, Tabasco and northern Chiapas)

• P. c. mexicana:

• South-eastern Mexico (Yucatán Peninsula)

• P. c. cozumelae:

• Cozumel Island (off eastern Mexico)

Habitat

Photo by mali
Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, USA, 2014

Deciduous woodlands, streamside thickets, live oaks, pinyon-juniper, chaparral. Coastal sage scrub and gardens.

Behaviour

Frontal Perspective
Photo © by Robert Steffens
Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina, USA, 15 April 2021

Hyperactive and hard to capture, gleams insects of shrubs and trees, acts like a wren.

Breeding

The clutch consists of 4 or 5 brown-spotted pale blue eggs laid 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.

Vocalisation

Song is a thin, musical warble. Call note a distinctive, whining pzzzz, with a nasal quality.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 7 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Blue-gray_Gnatcatcher

External Links

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