Laura Erickson's For the Birds

This critically declining species is found only in dense coastal sage scrub from Southern California through Baja California and Baja California Sur. In the United States it’s listed as “Threatened,” but its habitat is being degraded and lost at an alarming rate. Some areas where it was formerly fairly common are now being overrun with Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, a lovely but much more generalized species that may be competing with and squeezing out the California Gnatcatcher, though its disappearance in these areas may also be due to habitat alterations.