Yellow-breasted Chat
Icteria virens
Strange, long-tailed tanager-like bird with thick bill. Once thought to be a warbler, but now considered unique in its own family. Bright yellow throat and breast, contrasting white spectacles, and dull olive-green upperparts. Known for its skulking habits. Often difficult to see in dense thickets, shrubby areas, and field edges. In breeding season, however, males can sit on conspicuous perches to sing and even perform a flight display. Fairly widespread but typically uncommon across much of the U.S. and Mexico, wintering to Costa Rica. Song is variable series of slow whistles, hoots, and chatters. Feeds mainly on insects; also fruit in winter.
Identification
When considered part of the family Parulidae (New World warblers), the yellow-breasted chat was the largest species of parulid. In fact, it can often weigh more than twice as much as other parulid species, but the membership in this taxonomic family is disputed.<p>This species has a total length of 17 to 19.1 cm (6.7 to 7.5 in) and a wingspan of 23 to 27 cm (9.1 to 10.6 in). Body mass can range from 20.2 to 33.8 g (0.71 to 1.19 oz). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 7.1 to 8.4 cm (2.8 to 3.3 in), the elongated tail is 6.9 to 8.6 cm (2.7 to 3.4 in), the relatively long, heavy bill is 1.3 to 1.6 cm (0.51 to 0.63 in), and the tarsus is 2.5 to 3.1 cm (0.98 to 1.22 in). These birds have olive upper parts with white bellies and bright-yellow throats and breasts. Other signature features of yellow-breasted chats are their large, white eye rings, and blackish legs. When seen, this species is unlikely to be mistaken for any other bird.<p>The song is an odd, variable mixture of cackles, clucks, whistles, and hoots. Their calls are harsh chak's. Unlike most warblers, this species has been known to mimic the calls of other birds. Thus, less experienced field birdwatchers sometimes overlook chats after mistaking their song for species such as grey catbirds and brown thrashers, which share similar habitat preferences and skulking habits, though are generally much more abundant. During the breeding season, chats are at their most conspicuous, as they usually sing from exposed locations and even fly in the open while gurgling their songs.
Taxonomy
The yellow-breasted chat was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus Turdus, coined the binomial name Turdus virens, and specified the type locality as "America". The specific epithet is Latin meaning "green". The locality has been restricted to South Carolina. Linnaeus based his account on the "yellow brested chat" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. It is now the only species placed in the genus Icteria that was introduced in 1808 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. It is also the only species placed in the family Icteriidae that was introduced (as Icterieae) in 1858 by the American naturalist Spencer Baird.<p>The yellow-breasted chat was formerly considered the largest member of the family Parulidae, but following taxonomic studies, it was moved to the monotypic family Icteriidae in 2017. Although Icteriidae is a distinct family from the New World blackbirds (Icteridae), which have a very similar name, taxonomic studies support them as being the closest living relatives of one another, and in a 2019 study Carl Oliveros and colleagues actually classified the yellow-breasted chat as a member of Icteridae. In addition, the former grouping of the yellow-breasted chat as a warbler was not too far off because phylogenomic studies have placed Parulidae as sister to a clade that includes Icteridae. Those results make it reasonable to view Parulidae the sister group to the clade comprising Icteridae and Icteriidae, as in Oliveros et al.<p>The cladogram below shows the relationship of the yellow-breasted chat to the other families. It is based on the molecular phylogenetic study by Carl Oliveros and collaborators that was published in 2019. The species numbers are taken from the list maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC).
- Scientific name
- Icteria virens
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Icteriidae
- Genus
- Icteria
Range and habitat
The yellow-breasted chat is found throughout North America. It breeds from the southern plains of Canada to central Mexico, and mainly migrates to Mexico and Central America for the winter, although some may overwinter in coastal areas farther north. This species occurs in areas where dense shrubbery is common. Today, its habitat often consists of abandoned farmland and other rural areas where overgrown vegetation proliferates.
- Breeding range
- NA, MA : widespread
- Non-breeding range
- to Panama
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Migration pattern: Complete migrants.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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