YELLOW BIRDS SEEN IN NORTH AMERICA

Yellow-Breasted Chat

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Icteria Virens

Yellow-breasted Chat

Adults have a long olive-green tail, thick, short and black bill, and white spectacles. They do not have wing bars or tail patches.

Males have black lores. They have a bright yellow throat and breast, white belly and undertail. The upperparts are olive-green.

The eyes are dark brown with 2 white crescents, above and below the eye. There is a white strip above the black lore and a white long patch is found on the cheek, below the black lore. Legs and feet are blackish.

Females are similar, but with gray lores in the breeding season.

Juveniles have dusky spotting on the throat and breast.

BILL: black, thick and short.

SIZE: measures about 6.7 - 7.5 inches in length, with a wingspan of 9.1 - 10.6 inches.

WEIGHT: weight ranges from 20.2 - 33.8 grams.

COLOR: yellow, olive-green, black and white.

Breeding season: small invertebrates, insects (bees, wasps, ants, grasshoppers and beetles). Late summer: fruit (strawberries, blackberries and grapes).

Dense thickets and bush, in dry and open habitats, around wood edges, riparian areas, and in overgrown clearing resulting of vegetative growth in forest opening, created by storms and fire, or abandoned fields.

BREEDS: The Eastern United States and Southern Canada, from Iowa to New York; southward to Texas and Northern Florida.

WINTER: Mexico and Central America.

SONG: A jumble of harsh, chattering clucks, rattles, clear whistles, squawks, mews, gurgles and pops, sometimes given in hovering display flight.

CALL: A sharp “chuck”.

NEST: The female builds a bulky cup of grasses, leaves, bark strips, and weed stems lined with fine grasses, wiry plant stems, pine needles, and sometimes roots and hair.

EGGS: 3 - 5 white or creamy, smooth and glossy eggs, speckled with reddish or purple.

INCUBATION: 11 - 12 days, female.

FLEDGLING PHASE: 8 - 11 days.

They are rather shy and solitary birds, more often heard than seen.

They are loud birds and tend to skulk in low, thick brush. In spring, males may sing from an exposed perch, but otherwise, these birds typically stay well hidden.