Black-tailed & Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

A Black-tailed Gnatcatcher snags an insect from a Palo Verde tree. These agile and active desert dwellers flit between branches in virtual non-stop motion.

Ants, caterpillars and spiders are a few of their diet preferences. They glean the thicket and tangles for most any insect their size.

A Black-tailed Gnatcatcher is only five inches long from tip to tail and weighs the equivalent of a nickel.

This one's in non-breeding winter plumage.

A close relative to the Black-tailed Gnatcatcher is the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. This Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is sporting his more colorful breeding plumage.

This photo is from my files. I found him in the Lion's Den Gorge Nature Preserve, Grafton, WI in May 2013.

Gnatcatchers are feisty little birds, aggressive enough to face-down birds twice their size.

Their nests can be parasitized by Brown-headed Cowbirds. But, if caught in the act, the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher will run off the much larger cowbird.

It's all about food and where to find it.

If you have a bug in your bill already, you can afford to pause and look at someone taking your picture.

It will be over quickly.

Allan

Credits: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
The Sibley's Guide to Birds