Yellow-breasted Chat

Icteria virens		 ybch.gif (38514 bytes)


Description: Olive-green to olive-gray above, yellow throat and breast. White belly and undertail coverts, white spectacles and whisker stripe. Long-tailed, thick-billed. Largest North American Warbler.


Song: A harsh jumble of squawks, whistles, rattles.

Recording
Produced by: Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.


Distribution: Breeds from Washington east to southern Minnesota, southern Ontario, New York, and southern New England, extending south into Mexico; a few breed in central Saskatchewan. Nests in dense thickets and brush bordering deciduous forest.

Winter range is from coastal Mexico south into Central America, west to Panama.

A trans-Gulf migrant, arriving in the Gulf states mid-April; in northern parts of breeding range by mid-May.
Status: Declining through much of the East and Midwest, probably due to decreased shrubland caused by urbanization and forest maturation. Western populations appear stable. Breeding Bird Survey
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