Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | |
|---|---|
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Polioptilidae |
| Genus: | Polioptila |
| Species: | P. caerulea |
| Binomial name | |
| Polioptila caerulea (Linnaeus, 1766) |
|
The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Polioptila caerulea, is a very small songbird.
Adult males are blue-grey on the upperparts with white underparts and have a long slender bill, long black tail and an angry black unibrow. Females are less blue without the unibrow. Both sexes have a white eye ring.
Their breeding habitat includes open deciduous woods and shrublands in southern Ontario, the eastern and southwestern United States, and Mexico. They build a cup nest similar in construction to a hummingbird nest on a horizontal tree branch. Both parents construct the nest and feed the young; they may raise two broods in a season.
These birds migrate to the southern United States, Mexico, northern Central America-(Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras), Cuba, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Cayman Islands.
They forage actively in trees or shrubs, mainly eating insects, insect eggs and spiders. They may hover over foliage (gleaning), or fly to catch insects in flight (hawking).
The tail is often held upright while defending territory or searching for food.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2009). "Polioptila caerulea". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011. International Union for Conservation of Nature. http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/147830. Retrieved 28 September 2011. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Polioptila caerulea |
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Information and Photos - South Dakota Birds and Birding
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerula - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Species Account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Blue-grey Gnatcatcher stamps (with RangeMap)-Turks and Caicos
- Blue-grey Gnatcatcher videos on the Internet Bird Collection
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher photo gallery VIREO
- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Bird Sound
- IUCN Red List least concern species
- Polioptila
- Birds of North America
- Birds of Canada
- Birds of the United States
- Birds of Mexico
- Birds of Baja Peninsula Mexico
- Birds of the Yucatán Peninsula region
- Birds of the Bahamas
- Birds of the Turks and Caicos Islands
- Birds of Cuba
- Birds of the Cayman Islands
- Birds of the Greater Antilles
- Birds of Belize
- Birds of Guatemala
- Birds of Honduras
- North American migratory birds
