Family: Sylviidae, Old World Warblers and Gnatcatchers view all from this family

Description 4 1/2 -5" (11-13 cm). Smaller than a sparrow. Tiny, slender, long-tailed bird, blue-gray above and white below, with white eye ring and broad white borders on black tail. Looks like a miniature mockingbird.

Habitat Deciduous woodlands, streamside thickets, live oaks, pinyon-juniper, chaparral.

Nesting 4 or 5 brown-spotted pale blue eggs in a small, beautifully made cup of plant down and spider webs, decorated with flakes of lichen and fastened to a horizontal branch at almost any height above ground.

Range Breeds from northern California, Colorado, southern Great Lakes region, southern Ontario, and New Hampshire southward. Winters north to southern California, Gulf Coast, and Carolinas.

Voice   Song is a thin, musical warble. Call note a distinctive, whining pzzzz, with a nasal quality.

Discussion Several species of gnatcatchers are found throughout the warmer parts of the Americas. All of them build exquisite nests, which are exceedingly difficult to find unless the adults are feeding their young; the parents are quite noisy and conspicuous, and seem to ignore intruders. These gnatcatchers are lively birds, constantly flicking their conspicuous long tails upward while gathering insects from the branches of trees or bushes.