Yellow-breasted Chat

The Yellow-breasted Chat is an unusual bird, so distinctive in size, shape, and behavior that taxonomists now place it in its own family separate from the true wood-warblers it was long grouped with. It is by far the largest and bulkiest of North America's warbler-like birds, with a thick bill and a long tail that give it an almost mockingbird-like silhouette.

Plumage is fairly simple but handsome: olive-green upperparts, a bright yellow throat and breast, a white belly, and bold white spectacles around the eyes. Chats are notorious skulkers, spending most of their time buried in dense brush, but their loud, eccentric songs betray their presence even when they stay out of sight.

Key field marks

• Large size and heavy build compared to other warblers
• Bright yellow throat and breast, white belly
• Olive-green upperparts
• White spectacles (broken eyering plus supraloral line)
• Thick, slightly downcurved bill and long tail

Similar species

No other North American warbler approaches the chat's size and bulk. Common Yellowthroat is much smaller with a black mask on males and lacks the chat's thick bill and long tail. Overall shape and odd vocalizations make chats readily distinguishable once you notice the sheer size and behavior.

Habitat

Yellow-breasted Chats favor dense, tangled shrubby growth, including overgrown fields, forest edges, streamside thickets, and regenerating clear-cuts, always with thick low cover.

Range

The species breeds across much of the United States and southern Canada, from coast to coast, though it is patchily distributed depending on availability of suitable brushy habitat. It winters from Mexico south through Central America.

Migration

Chats are medium- to long-distance migrants, arriving on breeding grounds in late April or May and departing by September, wintering in brushy and forest-edge habitats from Mexico to Panama.

Behavior

Chats are notorious skulkers, staying low and hidden in dense brush for most of their activity, but males become conspicuous during the breeding season when they sing from exposed perches or perform a distinctive, floppy song-flight with dangling legs.

Voice

The song is a bizarre, almost mechanical jumble of whistles, cackles, rattles, grunts, and mimicked sounds, often delivered continuously for long stretches, including at night, unlike almost any other North American songbird.

Nesting

Nests are bulky open cups built low in dense shrubs or briar tangles, well hidden from view. Females typically lay 3-5 eggs, and the species is a frequent host of Brown-headed Cowbird brood parasitism.