Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Polioptila caerulea

eBird offers this description for the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher: Tiny, long-tailed, with a thin bill. Soft blue-gray upperparts and slightly paler underparts. Note the thin white eyering. Males have black forehead. Forages for insects with diverse songbird flocks in a variety of wooded or brushy habitats. Active and twitchy; tail often seems loose. When separating from Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, try to confirm tail pattern from below: nearly all white, not black.  All About Birds gives this additional descriptive information about the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher:  A tiny, long-tailed bird of broadleaf forests and scrublands, the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher makes itself known by its soft but insistent calls and its constant motion. It hops and sidles in dense outer foliage, foraging for insects and spiders. As it moves, this steely blue-gray bird conspicuously flicks its white-edged tail from side to side, scaring up insects and chasing after them. Pairs use spiderweb and lichens to build small, neat nests, which sit on top of branches and look like tree knots.

I met this bird on the morning of January 5, 2021 at Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen, Texas.  I was staked out near the Ebony Pond watching a beautiful Vermillion Flycatcher (and friends) when I noticed a small bird darting around a small brush pile.  It took a while but I finally got some decent photos of this quick little bird.  As you can see, the bird is a female, lacking the black forehead mentioned in the description above. 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at Quinta Mazatlan, January 5, 2021.
A little different view of the female Blue-gray Gnatcatcher on January 5, 2021.
The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher flew back and forth from the brush pile to a nearby tree. January 5, 2021, Quinta Mazatlan, Ebony Pond.


“Cool Facts” About the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher From All About Birds:

  • The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher’s grayish coloring and long tail, as well as the way it mixes snippets of other birds’ repertoires into its own high, nasal songs, have earned it the nickname “Little Mockingbird.”
  • The nesting range of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers has been shifting northward since the early twentieth century. Over the last quarter of that century, the shift was about 200 miles, in concert with increasing average temperatures.
  • A pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers can build up to seven nests in a breeding season. They often re-use nest material from previous nests, which speeds re-nesting. This can be essential to breeding success, since predation, nest parasitism, or mite infestations frequently cause nest loss and brood failure.
  • Occasionally, significant numbers of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers “overshoot” on their spring migrations and end up much further north than usual. They may be carried past their target by strong southwest winds in warm regions, and by strong northerly winds on the west side of high pressure systems. Most probably make their way back south before nesting.
  • In spite of their name, gnats do not form a significant part of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher’s diet.
  • Fiercely territorial Blue-gray Gnatcatchers may use vocal displays and postures to chase a rival as far as 70 feet. Further resistance by an intruder may provoke midair confrontations, with the two birds climbing steeply, breast-to-breast, snapping at each other.
  • The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is the northernmost-occurring species of gnatcatcher, and the only truly migratory one. Most members of its genus are resident in Central and South America.
  • The oldest known Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher was a male, and at least 4 years, 2 months old, when it was recaught at a banding station in Pennsylvania and rereleased.