Blue-grey Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) [XC477205]
by from Slough Trail, 92nd-Glass Plant Rd, Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, United States (call)
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) [XC372757]
by from Idaho (near Ririe), Jefferson County, Idaho, United States (call)
Subspecies
Geographical differences over extensive range minor. Subspecies caesiogaster very similar to, and sometimes synonymized with, nominate; amoenissima sometimes considered synonymous with obscura, and treatment as separate subspecies based largely on apparently disjunct distribution of latter. Further study is required. Listed ranges are tentative.
The following 11 subspecies are recognised:
amoenissima (Linnaeus, 1766) - Breeds western USA (southern Oregon east to south-western Wyoming) south to western Mexico (Baja California south to c. 30° north, on mainland southern possibly to south-eastern Coahuila and western Zacatecas). Non-breeding south-western USA (central-western California, western and central Arizona, southern New Mexico, western Texas) and Mexico (south to Jalisco and San Luis Potosí).
caerulea (Linnaeus, 1766) - Breeds from south-eastern Canada southern in USA to eastern Nebraska, central Kansas, central Texas and southern Florida. Non-breeding south-eastern USA south to Mexico (southern from central and south-central Sinaloa), Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, and (perhaps this race) Cuba.
obscura Ridgway, 1883 - Extreme southern Baja California (western Mexico).
perplexa Phillips, AR, 1991 - Eastern Mexico from south-eastern Coahuila and south-western Nuevo León southern on eastern part of high plateau to north-eastern San Luis Potosí, possibly to southern Hidalgo.
deppei van Rossem, 1934 - Eastern and southern Mexico from west-central Nuevo León and Tamaulipas south to eastern San Luis Potosí (possibly also Tlaxcala and Puebla), and Yucatán south to Isthmus of Tehuantepec and northern and western Chiapas; probably also Belize; northern populations non-breeding in southern Mexico (Morelos, central and northern Michoacán and from southern Guerrero) eastern in Pacific lowlands to Guatemala.
comiteca Phillips, AR, 1991 - South-central Mexico (from northern Hidalgo and Michoacán) southern in semi-arid highlands to north-western Guatemala.
nelsoni Ridgway, 1903 - North-western, central and central-southern Oaxaca, in southern Mexico.
cozumelae Griscom, 1926 - Cozumel I, off north-eastern Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico).
caesiogaster Ridgway, 1887 - Bahamas (islands of Little Abaco, Great Abaco, Andros, New Providence, Inagua).
gracilis van Rossem & Hachisuka, 1937 - Foothills of north-western Mexico (south-eastern Sonora).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet