Yellow-breasted Chat - Ictérie polyglotte

The Yellow-breasted chat is a medium-sized songbird, larger and bulkier than warblers or vireos. Chats are about 18 centimetres long, with a bright yellow chest and throat, olive-green back, white circles around its eyes, white belly and undertail. They have a long tail, large head and a relatively thick, heavy bill.

These are loud birds that tend to skulk in low, thick brush. In spring, males may sing from an exposed perch, but otherwise these birds typically stay well hidden. It’s seldom seen or heard during the rest of the year, when both males and females skulk silently in the shadows of dense thickets, gleaning insects and berries for food. The chat is a widespread breeder in shrubby habitats, thickets and scrub, especially locations where clearings have become overgrown, across North America, venturing to Central America for the winter.

The Yellow-breasted Chat has always been a mystery to taxonomists—it looks similar to warblers but is larger, with a more varied repertoire of songs and calls, and also has other differences in behavior and anatomy. The species was placed in the warbler family (Parulidae) for decades, but in the late 2010s was given its own family (Icteriidae), in recognition of these differences.

In Canada, it lives in southern British Columbia, the Prairies, and southwestern Ontario, where it is concentrated in Point Pelee National Park and Pelee Island in Lake Erie. This bird winters along the Gulf of Mexico. In Ontario, the Yellow-breasted Chat is listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, which protects both the bird and its habitat. The ESA prohibits harm or harassment of the species and damage or destruction of its habitat. Although it was likely never common here, the Yellow-breasted chat’s preferred habitat of overgrown clearings has declined due to development, agriculture, and land management approaches that interfere with natural processes.

Did you know ??

The Yellow-breasted Chat has always been a mystery to taxonomists—it looks similar to warblers but is larger, with a more varied repertoire of songs and calls, and also has other differences in behavior and anatomy. The species was placed in the warbler family (Parulidae) for decades, but in the late 2010s was given its own family (Icteriidae), in recognition of these differences.