Yellow-breasted Chat

Icteria virens

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family PARULIDAE

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

Despite its bright yellow chest, loud song, and conspicuous display flights, the Yellow-breasted Chat is easily overlooked because of its skulking nature and the denseness of its brushy haunts. Long considered the largest of the wood-warblers, genetic data suggest that it is not a warbler at all.

Cool Facts

• In one study in central Kentucky, DNA fingerprinting revealed that 17% of 29 Yellow-breasted Chat nestlings were not sired by the male of the social pair and 33% of 9 broods contained at least 1 extra-pair nestling.

Description

• Size: 18 cm (7 in)
• Wingspan: 25 cm (10 in)
• Weight: 23-31 g (0.81-1.09 ounces)

• Medium-sized songbird.
• Bright yellow chest and throat.
• Olive-green back.
• White spectacles.
• White belly and undertail.
• Long tail.

• Bill short, thick and black.
• Black in front of eyes.
• No wingbars or tail spots.
• Legs and feet steely blue to black.

Sex Differences

Sexes similar, but breeding female has gray, not black in front of eyes.

Immature

Juvenile lacks yellow and has dusky spotting on throat and chest.

Similar Species

• Yellow-throated Vireo is smaller and has two white wingbars.

Sound

Song a collection of whistles, cackles, mews, catcalls, caw notes, chuckles, rattles, squawks, gurgles, and pops. Call a sharp "chuck."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds across eastern United States and southern Canada from Iowa to New York, southward to Texas and northern Florida. Also in scattered regions across West from southern Canada to very northern Mexico.

Winter Range

Winters in Mexico and Central America.

Habitat

Dense second-growth, riparian thickets, and brush.

Food

Small invertebrates, fruits.

Behavior

Foraging

Gleans prey from foliage of low, dense shrubs, or from ground. Holds food with foot.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Bulky cup of grasses, leaves, strips of bark, stems of weeds; lined with finer grasses, wiry plant stems, pine needles, and sometimes roots and hair. Placed in dense shrubs.

Egg Description

White or off-white covered in dark speckles.

Clutch Size

Usually 3-5 eggs. Range: 1-6.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless.

Conservation Status

Declining in northeastern part of range, but increasing in western part. Through much of 20th century, range has been fairly stable, but peripheral, regional, and local populations have fluctuated, sometimes leading to dramatic declines and local extirpations.

Other Names

Paruline polyglotte (French)
Griton Pechiamarillo, Reinita Grande, Chipe Piquigrueso (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Eckerle, K. P., and C. F. Thompson. 2001. Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens). In The Birds of North America, No. 575 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.