Gnatcatchers: Family Polioptilidae

Gnatcatchers and Gnatwrens are a family of very small birds native to North and South America (New World). They live in a wide variety of habitats, ranging from the hot, dry deserts of California, to the not-so-dry but equally hot rainforests of South America. They are generally a dark slate-grey to brown color, with long legs and a long, rigid set of tail feathers. They build cup shaped nests, normally out of vegetation, on an open branch of a tree. Like their relatives, the wrens, these birds live primarily off a diet of insects, using their long, sharp beak to probe the foliage for tasty bugs.

The Ants Go Marching...

Gnatcatchers are insectivorous birds, and while they generally browse for insects in thick foliage, where they are protected from predators, they have been seen following the trails of army ants out in the open. They will often follow the ants while they are marching one by one, (hurrah, hurrah), or pretty much any arrangement those marching ants choose to travel in. Gnatwrens use these ants as a tool, rather than a food source, when the army ants scare other insects out of their hiding spots, gnatwrens eat them up!

These birds will never turn down a meal. Small animals generally lose body heat faster than big animals. To make up for lost body heat, gnatcatchers have to eat small meals continuously. A recent study found that these birds will sometimes follow Yellow Armadillos to eat the bugs that these large insectivores leave behind. They will often use their long tail feathers to stir up insects that live underground and eat those as well. Normally when you Shake Your Tail Feathers in dirt, you can get a little dusty, so they have to go'on and Dust Their Shoulders Off afterwards.

Taxonomy

These birds are most closely related to wrens, and are a sister clade to nuthatches and treecreepers. Fossil evidence tells us that all of these birds evolved approximately 25 million years ago. There are 3 genera in this family and 20 species. Genera include:

Genus Microbates (Gnatwrens)
Genus Ramphocaenus (Long tailed Gnatwren)
Genus Polioptila (Gnatcatchers)