Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Polioptila caerulea
26.487, -80.162
Field Notes
Description:
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) - actively foraging - at Green Cay Wetlands, Boynton Beach, Florida. This bird is so small, twitchy and active that it was extremely difficult to get a good, in-focus shot of it. << 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. 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). >>
Habitat:
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.
(credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-gray_Gnatcatcher)
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