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Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens)

Photo credit: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Length: 6.5-7.5 in.
Habitat: Dense thickets and brush, often with thorns; streamside tangles and dry brushy hillsides.
Range: British Columbia, Ontario, and Massachussetts south to Florida, and Gulf Coast, and northern Mexico. Winters in Mexico and Central America.

This bird is not only large for a warbler but there is doubt about it being a warbler at all. Some expert suggest that this species is a cross between a warbler and a Mockingbird.

The Yellow-breasted Chat feeds on a wide variety of insects including moths, beetles, bugs, wasps, mayflies, grasshoppers, katydids, caterpillars, and praying mantises; also spiders. Up to half of its diets may be berries and wild fruit, including blackberries, elderberries, wild grapes, and others.

The nest (large open cup) is built by female. The young are fed by both parents.

Conservation Status The Yellow-breasted Chat population may have increased recently in the east as clearing of forest created more brushy habitat.