Yellow-breasted Chat

Icteria virensOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Wood Warblers (Parulidae)

General

Yellow-breasted Chat: Very large warbler with olive-green upperparts, brilliant yellow throat and breast, and white belly and undertail. Eyes have thick, white spectacles and dark eye patches. Bill is heavy and dark. Wings and tail are olive-green. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Yellow-breasted Chat: Breeds from British Columbia, Ontario, and (rarely) Massachusetts south to California, the Gulf Coast, and Florida. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include dense thickets and brush, often with thorns, streamside tangles, and dry brushy hillsides.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"caw", "cheow", "hair"

Interesting Facts

The Yellow-breasted Chat was first described in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist.

Its large size and stout bill, long tail, and distinctive display flight, hovering with slow, deep-flapping wings and dangling feet, make it seem more like one of the mockingbirds or thrashers.

Unlike most warblers, this species has been known to mimic the calls of other birds.

A group of warblers has many collective nouns, including a "bouquet", "confusion", "fall", and "wrench" of warblers.

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Yellow-breasted Chat

Yellow-breasted Chat: The largest North American warbler. Has olive-green to olive-gray upperparts, brilliant yellow throat, breast. Belly and undertail are white. Eyes have white spectacles and dark eye patches. Bill is heavy and dark. Wings and tail are olive-green. Bill, legs, and feet are black.

● Song: "caw", "cheow", "hair"

● Foraging & Feeding: Yellow-breasted Chat: Diet consists primarily of insects, including bees, wasps, ants, grasshoppers, and beetles; also eat berries and wild grapes; forages in trees and shrubs.

● Breeding & nesting: Yellow-breasted Chat: Three to six white eggs with rust or violet flecks at large end, are laid in a bulky nest made of bark, grass, and leaves, lined with finer grass, and concealed in a dense bush. Incubation ranges from 11 to 12 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Yellow-breasted Chat: None in range.

Flight Pattern

Weak fluttering flights of short duration.

● Range & Habitat: Yellow-breasted Chat: Breeds from British Columbia, Ontario, and (rarely) Massachusetts south to California, the Gulf Coast, and Florida. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include dense thickets and brush, often with thorns, streamside tangles, and dry brushy hillsides.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^Population

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.9 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America