Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Polioptila caerulea
Gnatcatcher family (Sylviidae)

Habitat:
Deciduous forest.

Description:
Small slim bird, 4” long.  Bluish-gray back and head,  light gray below.  Long tail is usually cocked upward or flicked from side to side. 
Tail is black above, white below.  White eye ring.

Nesting:
Tiny cup is made of plant fibers and spider webs and covered with bits of lichen.  Nest is placed on a horizontal limb, 10 to 20 feet above the ground.  Eggs are pale blue with dark spots.  Clutch size – 4 to 5 eggs.

Voice:
Song is a complex rambling jumble of high-pitched phrases.  Song is only heard early in the breeding season, during mid-March and early April.  Call, heard throughout the spring and summer, is a thin high-pitched series of “zeeeee” notes.

Name Origin:
Polioptila:  polios, Greek for “gray”; ptilon, Greek for “feather”; caerulea, Latin for “blue” for its blue back

In the Nature Park:
Short-distance migrant, arriving mid-March to early April.  Common in open woodlands throughout the Nature Park.