Nesting Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

It's surprising sometimes how much time you can spend getting a fairly mediocre picture. I 1st noticed this Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - or its mate - while helping out at a Duke Farms program for schoolkids, though I believe this picture was taken a couple days later when I had more time to loiter around waiting for a photo opportunity. I didn't see 2 birds around at the same time, though:
  • Branches and foliage provided only quick looks as the bird(s) returned to the nest.
  • These are pretty small birds.
  • They're only slightly sexually dimorphic, so distinguishing a male from a female is pretty hard.
  • I'm unsure if I was seeing 1 or 2 birds.
The weather in early May was frequently cool in the mornings but was frequently warm in the afternoons. I'm not sure the eggs need someone tending them continuously during this weather. I didn't hear little birds begging for food, and it looked like the nest was complete, so my best guess is that the adult would look for something to eat before hurrying back to the nest. (My backup theory is that there weren't eggs in the nest yet, and the bird(s) were still renovating the inside of the nest.)

Somewhat disappointingly, gnats are not an especially big part of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher's diet [1], probably because even for a pretty small bird they're a pretty tiny meal. Moths and their caterpillars seem to be favorite foods, though other small insects and spiders are also on the menu. If they catch something big enough to be troublesome, they have a brutally effective solution: They beat the bug to death on the side of a tree.

Despite their small size, they're sometimes victims of Brown-headed Cowbirds, and they have a somewhat novel way of trying to thwart the cowbirds. The gnatcatchers will build multiple nests in the hope that the cowbirds will waste an egg in a nest they weren't going to use anyway.

Although in some areas of the continent it can be pretty tricky to tell which species of gnatcatcher you're seeing, here in the northeast the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is the only one that should be even close to here.
May 3, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 278557538, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


[1] I can attest to the fact that there are gnats in this area in need of being eaten.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Northern Watersnake

Image
This April I went to Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge with the hope (among other hopes) of seeing the Northern Watersnakes during mating season. There were 2 problems with this: I think it was slightly late in the season for this. The boardwalk trail where I had seen them in the past was partially closed due to repairs. So although I didn't see any of the 2+ intertwined snakes that I'd seen in the past, but there were still Northern Watersnakes warming themselves in the sun: April 13, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 272117862, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) And here's another one coming out of the water. April 13, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 272119139, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
Read more

Female Brown-headed Cowbird

Image
Like quite a few birds, this bird is easier to identify when spotted with her significant other ; she's a Brown-headed Cowbird . Due to their tendency to be monogamous plus plain old birds-of-a-feather behavior, I usually see them with prominently brown-headed males around, greatly improving my confidence in IDing them. My understanding is that Brown-headed Cowbirds are the only obligate brood parasites in my area. Obligate brood parasites have essentially lost all their parenting skills, and thus if they were ever unable to fool other birds into raising their young, they would (almost certainly) go extinct [1]. There are, however, other brood parasites in New Jersey. These are called facultative brood parasites, and these birds will usually raise their own offspring, but will also engage in brood parasitism. (Exactly when birds perform facultative brood parasitism seems variable; one source said it occurred when resources were scarce while another said it occurred when resource
Read more

Rooftop Turkey Vultures

Image
I met these Turkey Vultures by just walking out of my apartment. (I theoretically could have gotten a picture without going outside, but that extra layer of glass can degrade picture quality a little.) Although they don't show up on these rooftops daily, they're not an uncommon visitor to my apartment complex. Similar to this spot of the woods , I wouldn't expect this to be a great place to find carcasses. I'm thinking they're here mostly because: They don't have to worry much about predators up there. They get a pretty good view of the area in case something should happen to succumb. (This apartment was near the top of a hill, providing a better view than most of the other apartments.) Since this picture was from February, it's probably a slightly warmer spot, especially near those furnace vent pipes. Although these are Turkey Vultures, it's also not unusual to see Black Vultures up there too. February 28, 2023 at Finderne Photo 264703396, (c) jpviole
Read more