Yellow-breasted Chat

Icteria virens

Their large size and raucous calls make Yellow-breasted Chats the most unusual wood warblers in Missouri. They act and sound more like Northern Mockingbirds than warblers (Parkes 1964). Sometimes they hide among tangles of vines and shrubs only to burst forth in song, wings popping, flopping awkwardly and tail hanging limp.

Code Frequency

Eighty-three percent of the records were based on sight and sound rather than nest or fledgling observations. This is usual for a thicket-nesting species. In only 8.9 percent of blocks was breeding confirmed. Observation of food being carried to young and fledglings made up 66 percent of the confirmed records.

Distribution

Chats were found statewide with the Ozark and Ozark Border natural divisions containing the highest percentage of blocks in which this species was recorded. Recently cut-over areas in the Ozarks, usually more than four or five acres, make good chat habitat. Blocks with records gradually diminished northward and few observations were made in counties along the Iowa border. In the Mississippi Lowlands Natural Division thickets along flood ways and ditches were the only habitats available.

Average Number of Birds / 100 stops

Abundance

The Ozark Natural Division had the greatest abundance of chat habitat in Missouri. The extensive shrub and sapling cover in the Ozark and Ozark Border natural divisions provides more quality habitat for this species than the Osage Plains and Glaciated Plains.

Phenology

Six July and August observations of food to young or a nest with young may have been second broods. Most chats depart Missouri by late August and early September (Robbins and Easterla 1992).

Notes

Ehrlich et al. (1988) consider Yellow-breasted Chats frequent Brown-headed Cowbird hosts. The Atlas Project recorded two instances of brood parasitism.

Breeding Evidence

Reported in 683 (56.6%) of 1,207 blocks

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