The California Coastal Gnatcatcher lives throughout Southern California, northwestern Baja California and Mexico. The scientific name of the southern California Coastal Gnatcatcher is Polioptila californica. The gnatcatcher has a bluish gray body and a white-gray body on the bottom. The male has a hat on his head but it's gone during the winter. Both male and female have white rings around their eyes.
When they sing they make three notes that sound like a cat's mewing sounds. The Gnatcatcher is a non migratory bird and Their breeding season is from February to July. Their nests are made of bark, grass, leaves and sometimes parts of spider webs. Their nests stay in sage bushes, three feet above the ground. The young stay with their parents for several months. Then the young follow their parents to a distance of one mile from their nests.
The Gnatcatcher is endangered because of people that have been
taking their natural habitat away and continue threatening to take it.
The Gnatcatcher was added to the list of endangered and threatened wildlife
and plants in 1993. If people take one of these birds, they can be fined
up to $50,00. The constant taking of their habitat make the population
of this bird less each year.
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