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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.
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YELLOW-BREASTED
CHAT
Icteria virens
PASSERIFORMES
Wood Warblers (Parulidae)
Range and Habitat
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.
SOUND:
"caw", "cheow", "hair"
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.
The Yellow-breasted Chat has a very large range reaching up to around
6.1 million kilometers. This bird can be found in much of Central America,
the Caribbean and throughout North America as well. It also has vagrant
populations in the Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Greenland and
Saint Pierre and Miquelon. This specieas appears in forested areas as
well as shrublands and former or degraded forest environments.
The global population of this bird is estimated to be around 12 million
individuals. Currently, it is not believed that the population trends
for this bird will soon approach the minimum levels that could suggest
a potential decline in population. Due to this, population trends for
the Yellow-breasted Chat have a present evaluation level of Least Concern.
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