gnatcatcher

American  

[nat-kach-er] / ˈnætˌkætʃ ər /

noun

1. any tiny insect-eating, New World warbler of the genus Polioptila, having a long, mobile tail and a slender bill.

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gnatcatcher British  

/ ˈnætˌkætʃə /

noun

1. any of various small American songbirds of the genus Polioptila and related genera, typically having a long tail and a pale bluish-grey plumage: family Muscicapidae (Old World flycatchers, etc)

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Etymology

Origin of gnatcatcher

First recorded in 1835–45; gnat + catcher

Example Sentences

And if it is feeling somewhat cosmopolitan, the blue-gray gnatcatcher goes by its French name - Gobemoucheron gris-bleu.

From Washington Times • May 12, 2018

In 2010, the Pacific Legal Foundation filed a petition based on an earlier DNA analysis of gnatcatcher cells by Zink.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 31, 2016

The coastal gnatcatcher has less white in its tail feathers, for example.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 31, 2016

In September the fish and game commission, bowing to construction-industry arguments that protecting the gnatcatcher would cost the state $20 billion and 200,000 jobs, decided not to list the bird.

From Time Magazine Archive

I have observed the black and white creeping warbler, the Kentucky warbler, the worm-eating warbler, the redstart, and the gnatcatcher, breeding near Rock Creek.

From Wake-Robin by Burroughs, John