gnatcatcher

/nat"kach'euhr/, n.

any tiny insect-eating, New World warbler of the genus Polioptila, having a long, mobile tail and a slender bill.

[1835-45; GNAT + CATCHER]

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Any of about 11 species of small songbirds (genus Polioptila) often treated as a subfamily of the Old World warbler family Sylviidae.

The blue-gray gnatcatcher, 4.5 in. (11 cm) long, with its long white-edged tail, looks like a tiny mockingbird. It breeds locally from eastern Canada and California to the Bahamas and Guatemala and winters from the southern U.S. southward. The black-tailed gnatcatcher lives in the deserts of the southwestern U.S.; the other species are found in Central and South America and Cuba.

Blue-gray gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea)

Karl H. Maslowski

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▪ bird

also called  gnatwren  

 any of about 11 species of small insect-eating New World birds (bird) in the family Polioptilidae (order Passeriformes (passeriform)). (Many authorities treat the genus as a subfamily of the Old World warbler family Sylviidae.) The blue-gray gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea), 11 cm (4.5 inches) long, with its long white-edged tail, looks like a tiny mockingbird. With short, quick flights, it is able to catch insects in midair, but it usually gleans them from tree branches. It breeds locally from eastern Canada and California to The Bahamas and Guatemala and winters from the southern United States southward. The black-tailed gnatcatcher (P. melanura) is resident in southwestern deserts of the United States. It stays in pairs all year, and the two call to one another in voices that seem to mimic other birds. The California gnatcatcher (P. californica) was once thought to be a local form of the black-tailed gnatcatcher; acknowledged as a full species in the late 1980s, it was simultaneously recognized as a highly endangered one, as its scrubby habitat along the southern California coast is rapidly being turned into housing developments.

Sy Montgomery

 

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