Tiny and slim with long legs, a long tail, and a thin, straight bill. Blue-gray above and white below. Breeding males have a black V on their foreheads extending above their eyes. Note black tail with white outer tail feathers and white eyering.
Tiny songbird with a long, dark tail with white outer tail feathers. Females/nonbreeding birds are gray above with a thin white eyering.
Builds a tiny nest on top of a branch, using spiderweb, plant fibers, and lichens. Call is a sharp, nasal note.
Energetic and fluttery bird that often cocks its tail up or to the side. Note thin white eyering and white outer tail feathers.
Often holds its tail up over its back. The outer tail feathers are white, but birds in western North America have black at the base of the outer tail feathers, whereas birds in the East have entirely white outer tail feathers.
Tiny songbird with a thin bill. Females/nonbreeding birds are grayish above and paler below with a thin white eyering.
Tiny grayish songbird that conspicuously flicks its white-edged tail from side to side. Note thin white eyering.
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Blue-gray Gnatcatchers are tiny, slim songbirds with long legs; a long tail; and a thin, straight bill.
Slightly larger than a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Slightly smaller than a House Wren.
sparrow-sized or smallerBlue-gray Gnatcatchers from the Rocky Mountains and westward are generally drabber than gnatcatchers of the East. Western females tend to have a brownish cast to their upperparts and summer males have a shorter and wider black forehead “V.” They also show black at the base of the underside of the tail, unlike the eastern birds’ entirely white underside to the closed tail. The calls and particularly the songs of the two forms differ as well.
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