Icteria virens
male
The Yellow-breasted Chat is a thick-billed, plump-bodied songbird. The sexes are subtly dissimilar. Adult males have a gray-brown back, wings, and tail, with eastern birds being grayer overall than their western counterparts. The head is patterned with a gray hood, a partial white eyering, and a white supercilium in front of the eye. A white stripe separates the hood from the yellow throat and this color continues on the underparts to the undertail, which is white. Adult females are similar to an adult male but with less striking head markings. Immatures are similar to an adult female but duller overall.
The Yellow-breasted Chat is present as a breeding species across the southern half of North America mainly from May to August. It spends the rest of the year in Central America. It is very secretive and hence easily overlooked; observation is made trickier by the dense nature of its favored habitat.
female
FACT FILE
LENGTH 7.5 in (19 cm)
FOOD Invertebrates
HABITAT Dense colonizing scrub, usually on damp ground
STATUS Widespread but local summer visitor
VOICE Song is varied, including repeated chattering phrases, fluty notes, and whistles. Call is a harsh tchup
