Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Polioptila caerulea
Also known as: Blue-grey Gnatcatcher · Blue-grey Flycatcher
Aves
COMMON
Stats
- Lifespan
- 3-4 yrs
- Size
- Tiny
- Diet
- Insectivore
- Activity
- Diurnal
- Social
- Pair
- Biome
- Temperate woodland
- Range
- North America
- Movement
- Flight
- Breeding
- Egg-laying
- Defense
- Speed
- Status
- Common
About
A tiny, slender songbird of North American woodlands and scrub, gray-blue above and white below, with a long black tail it flicks and fans while foraging. Its bold white eye-ring gives it a perpetually wide-eyed expression, and it builds a lichen-camouflaged nest so neat it's often mistaken for a hummingbird's.
Life cycle
- 1.eggA small clutch of speckled eggs is incubated in a cup nest, turned and kept warm by the parent.
- 2.hatchlingA pink, blind hatchling is fed by its parents in the nest, gaping its bill at every visit.
- 3.juvenileA feathered juvenile fledges from the nest, learning to fly and to forage close to its parents.
- 4.adultFully grown with adult plumage and song.
Learn more
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Polioptilidae
- Genus
- Polioptila
- Species
- Polioptila caerulea