polioptila (from polios, gray, and ptilon, feather) caerulea (blue)
Saturday, May 2, 1981 — 1:00 pm
Barrington, Illinois — Crabtree Nature Center
I was walking the path through the woods along Bulrush Pond near the blind. I heard a high-pitched song coming from high in the trees. I spotted the Gnatcatcher flitting very rapidly branch to branch high overhead. It paused every few seconds to give its song, a short, buzzy trill or occasionally three buzzes with the middle one on a different pitch.