Birds of Mexico - Polioptila


White-lored Gnatcatcher (Polioptila albiloris vanrossemi) Male Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico Male, breeding plumage.
Photograph by Nigel Voaden © All Rights Reserved.


White-lored Gnatcatcher (Polioptila albiloris albiloris) Male Playa Azul, Tarcoles, Costa Rica Male, non-breeding plumage.
Photograph by Jorge Obando Gutierrez © Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved.

Compare to Tropical Gnatcatcher and White-browed Gnatcatcher. Female is like non-breeding male, but with grey instead of black.


Yucatan Gnatcatcher (Polioptila albiventris) Male ENDEMIC Yucatan, Mexico
Photograph by Edward Boyd © All Rights Reserved.

Split from the White-lored Gnatcatcher. Whiter underneath and with shorter tail (HBW).


White-browed Gnatcatcher (Polioptila bilineata brodkorbi) Male Belize
Photograph by Danny Bales © All Rights Reserved.


White-browed Gnatcatcher (Polioptila bilineata) Female Turrucares, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Photograph by Jorge Obando Gutierrez © Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved.


Blue-grey Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea caerulea) Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area, Florida, United States
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


California Gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica) California, United States
Photograph by Dominic Sherony Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file for non-commercial purposes under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one.

Similar to Black-capped Gnatcatcher and Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, and best identified by range (only found in California and Baja California).


Black-tailed Gnatcatcher (Polioptila melanura) Male Sweetwater Wetlands, Tuscon, Arizona,
Photograph by Mick Thompson/Eastside Audubon Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported. In short: you are free to share the file for non-commercial purposes under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Best identified by voice. Black-tailed has all black tail except for white tips on undertail, and edges of outer two feathers.


Black-capped Gnatcatcher (Polioptila nigriceps restricta) Male Patagonia Lake, Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States
Photograph by Alan Schmierer Image has been placed in the Public Domain.


Black-capped Gnatcatcher (Polioptila nigriceps restricta) Female Madera Canyon, Arizona, United States
Photograph by Andy Reago Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one.

Best identified by voice. To differentiate from Black-tailed Gnatcatcher look at undertail, which is mostly white.