The blue-gray gnatcatcher is a beautiful, little bird. The male is blue-gray above and white below. He has a white eye-ring and a black line that starts above one eye and curls around the forehead to above the other eye. The females are gray above and white below with the same striking eye-ring. They both have dark tails with white outer tail feathers.
This is a fun bird to watch flitting around through the landscape. When it perches, it has a noticeable behavior of cocking its tail, slightly fanning out the feathers, and swaying or wagging it back and forth.
Its nest is an open cup that is woven with small fibers and decorated with bits of lichen or bark. It looks similar to a hummingbird nest. Peterson has the length of the blue-gray gnatcatcher at 4.5 inches and Cornell lists it as 3.9 - 4.3. So they aren’t much bigger than a hummingbird.
The range map on All About Birds by the Cornell Lab doesn’t have them this far north, but lots of birds are expanding their range northward. This bird’s breeding range covers a lot of the United States from coast to coast. There is a small band across the lower part of the country where it can be seen throughout the year. Check out the range map at Cornell.
This bird is small and can be challenging to spot, so it’s helpful to also stay tuned into its vocalizations to find it. I love checking out how Roger Tory Peterson describes its voice in his Field Guide to Birds of Western North America. Here’s what he says: “Call a thin, peevish zpee; often doubled, zpee-zee. Song a thin, squeaky, wheezy series of notes.”
Happy birding! I hope to see you out there.
