Birds of the Table Rocks

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Polioptila caerulea

© 2003 Patricia Velte

I am smaller than a sparrow with a slender long tail. I am blue-gray above and white below, with a white-eye ring. Some say I look like a miniature mockingbird. I have a thin musical warble song and a distinctive nasal whining pzzzz call note.

I live in the Chaparral community on Table Rocks. This is the most northern part of my range. Like other gnatcatchers, I am a lively bird, constantly flicking my conspicuous long tail upward while gathering insects from the branches of trees or bushes.

When nesting, I can lay four or five brown-spotted pale blue eggs in a small, beautifully made cup of plant down and spider webs, decorated with flakes of lichen. I fasten my nest to a horizontal branch of buckbrush or a manzanita plant at almost any height above the ground. My nests are difficult to find unless I am feeding my young.

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