Art Lander’s Outdoors: Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher is a small, colorful songbird found across Kentucky

The Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerula) is a small, colorful songbird found across Kentucky.

A member of Family Polioptilidae, the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher was described in the scientific literature in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus. The family includes 21 species in North and South America.

The Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher’s breeding range in the eastern half of the Lower 48 states extends from east Texas, northward to northern Illinois, east to Massachusetts, down the Atlantic Coast to Georgia, and west through Alabama, Mississippi and northern Louisiana.

Size and coloration

The Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher is 3.9 to 5.1 inches in length, with a 6.3-inch wingspan, and weighing only 0.18 to 0.25 ounces.

Adult males are blue-gray on the back and crest, with a white chest, slender dark bill, and a long black tail edged in white.

Females are less blue, while juveniles are greenish-gray. Both sexes have a white eye ring.

Habitat

In Kentucky, this summer resident lives in forested and semi-open habitats, most numerous in bottomland and riparian corridors.

Feeding behavior and diet

The Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher forages actively in trees and shrubs, searching for insects among leafy twigs, branches and on tree trunks.

Most prey is taken while perched, but this agile, active feeder may hover, and fly out to catch insects that it flushes from foliage, and occasionally fly to the ground.

The smallest prey are swallowed alive. The wings are torn off larger prey and their bodies beaten against a limb before being eaten.

Their insect diet includes leafhoppers, beetles, caterpillars, flies, small wasps, and spiders.

Courtship and nesting

Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers winter along the Gulf Coast, Caribbean islands, Mexico and into northern Central America.

According to the The Kentucky Breeding Bird Atlas, some birds return to their breeding grounds here very early in March, with most of the nesting population here by mid-April.

Males arrives first, singing to defend territory and attract a mate. Courtship involves males leading females around to potential nest sites.

Nesting and clutch completion peaks in May, but some pairs may nest as late as mid-July.

The nest site is typically in a deciduous (hardwood) tree, on top of a horizontal limb, with its height above ground quite variable, usually about 20 to 40 feet.

Both sexes build the nest, a compact open cup of grass, weeds, plant fibers, and strips of bark, lined with plant down, animal hair, and feathers. The outside of the nest is coated with spiderwebs and decorated with pieces of lichen, making the nest well camouflaged.

The female lays about 4 to 5 bluish white eggs, dotted with reddish brown. Incubation is by both parents and lasts about 13 days.

The female stays with the young much of the time at first, while male brings food. Later, they both feed the nestlings. Young leave nest about 10 to 15 days after hatching. Pairs typically raise 1 to broods a year.

Its songs and calls are often heard on the breeding grounds, away from the nest, and include a shrieking “zkreee, zkreee, zkreee”, and “szpree zpree spreeeeey spree spre sprzrreeeee.”

The Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher is a little bird with a big attitude, often flicking its long tail aggressively as it feeds, and if you listen carefully you’ll hear its high-pitched, piercing calls echoing through the timber.

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