- 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
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
- P. c. amoenissima:
- 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
Deciduous woodlands, streamside thickets, live oaks, pinyon-juniper, chaparral. Coastal sage scrub and gardens.
Behaviour
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.
Song. There is Blue Gray Gnatcatcher at seconds 1.5-3.5 and again at 11-the end. Other species heard are White-eyed Vireo, a short call around second 5, and weak sounds from Tufted Titmouse several places. If anyone has a better recording, please replace this one!
Recording © by NJLarsen, Caw Caw Interpretive Center, South Carolina, USA, 2 May 2023.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 23 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Blue-gray_Gnatcatcher
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
