ODNR Division of Wildlife - A to Z Species Guide - Yellow-breasted Chat

Yellow-breasted Chat

Photo by Richard Day/Daybreak Imagery

Warblers, with their brilliantly colored feathers, are the tiny jewels of Ohio's bird families. They are very active -- constantly flittering around. Most are yellow with black-and-white markings. Their plumage varies considerably from spring to fall, juvenile to adult, and male to female. The tail is square, often with white markings. Warblers feed almost entirely on insects gleaned from leaves and twigs with their slender bills. Members of this family abound in any Ohio woodland or brushy area during the spring and fall migration seasons. In spring their buzzlike songs (not warbling) fill the air with a delightful chorus. The yellow-breasted chat was once considered a wood warbler, but recent genetic research has determined that this songbird is a closer relative of orioles and blackbirds.

Listen

Yellow-breasted Chat

Icteria virens

At-a-Glance

• Incubation: 11 days

• Clutch Size: 3-6 eggs

• Young Fledge: 8 days after hatching

• Typical Foods: insects and fruit

Description
If lured into sight by making squeaking or pishing sounds, one will be rewarded with views of the brilliant lemon-yellow breast of this otherwise greenish bird. It also has white "spectacles."

Habitat and Habits
Chats prefer shrubby habitat that occurs on powerline right-of-ways, unreclaimed surface mines, and the sapling stage of young forests. They are rather bizarre and completely unlike the other members of the warbler family. They are huge for a warbler -- several inches longer than most -- and act very differently. Yellow-breasted chats skulk about in dense thickets, emitting odd hoots, grunts, cackles, and squeaks.

Reproduction and Care of the Young
Nests are built in the cover of dense bushes and are made of bark, grass, and leaves.