Yellow-breasted chat
Yellow-breasted chat | |
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Near the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Superfamily: | Emberizoidea |
Family: | Icteriidae Baird, 1858 |
Genus: | Icteria Vieillot, 1808 |
Species: | I. virens
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Binomial name | |
Icteria virens | |
Breeding Migration Nonbreeding
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Synonyms | |
Turdus virens Linnaeus, 1758 |
The yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens) is a large songbird found in North America, and is the only member of the family Icteriidae. It was once a member of the New World warbler family
Taxonomy
The yellow-breasted chat was
The yellow-breasted chat was formerly considered the largest member of the family Parulidae, but following taxonomic studies, it was moved to the monotypic family Icteriidae in 2017.[10] Although Icteriidae is a distinct family from the New World blackbirds (Icteridae), which have a very similar name, taxonomic studies support them as being the closest living relatives of one another, and in a 2019 study[11] Carl Oliveros and colleagues actually classified the yellow-breasted chat as a member of Icteridae. In addition, the former grouping of the yellow-breasted chat as a warbler was not too far off because phylogenomic studies have placed Parulidae as sister to a clade that includes Icteridae. Those results make it reasonable to view Parulidae the sister group to the clade comprising Icteridae and Icteriidae, as in Oliveros et al.[11]
The
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Description
When considered part of the family Parulidae (New World warblers), the yellow-breasted chat was the largest species of parulid. In fact, it can often weigh more than twice as much as other parulid species, but the membership in this taxonomic family is disputed.
This species has a total length of 17 to 19.1 cm (6.7 to 7.5 in) and a wingspan of 23 to 27 cm (9.1 to 10.6 in). Body mass can range from 20.2 to 33.8 g (0.71 to 1.19 oz). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 7.1 to 8.4 cm (2.8 to 3.3 in), the elongated tail is 6.9 to 8.6 cm (2.7 to 3.4 in), the relatively long, heavy bill is 1.3 to 1.6 cm (0.51 to 0.63 in), and the tarsus is 2.5 to 3.1 cm (0.98 to 1.22 in).[12] These birds have olive upper parts with white bellies and bright-yellow throats and breasts. Other signature features of yellow-breasted chats are their large, white eye rings, and blackish legs. When seen, this species is unlikely to be mistaken for any other bird.
The song is an odd, variable mixture of cackles, clucks, whistles, and hoots. Their
Distribution and habitat
The yellow-breasted chat is found throughout North America. It breeds from the
Behaviour
The yellow-breasted chat is a shy, skulking species of bird, often being heard but not seen.
Breeding
The breeding habitat is dense, brushy vegetation or hedgerows. The nest is a bulky cup made of grasses, leaves, strips of bark, and stems of weeds, and lined with finer grasses, wiry plant stems, pine needles, and sometimes roots and hair. The nest is placed in thick shrub and often only about 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) above the ground. The clutch is three to five creamy-white eggs with reddish-brown blotches or speckles. These are incubated by the female and hatch in 11 to 12 days. Both parents tend the young, which fledge in 8 to 11 days. Chats are apparently vigilant guards of their nests, as parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds is not as frequent as with other cup-nest builders.[14] They are not as monogamous, though, as other warblers. In one study in central Kentucky, DNA fingerprinting revealed that 17% of 29 yellow-breasted chat nestlings were not sired by the male of the social pair and three of nine broods contained at least one extra-pair nestling.
Food and feeding
Yellow-breasted chats are omnivorous birds, and
Status
Yellow-breasted chats are declining in eastern North America due to
References
- ^ . Retrieved 13 November 2021.
- ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii. p. 171.
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 81.
- ^ Catesby, Mark (1729–1732). The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (in English and French). Vol. 1. London: W. Innys and R. Manby. p. 50, Plate 50.
- ISBN 978-0-9568611-1-5.
- ^ a b c Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (December 2023). "Caribbean "tanagers", Wrenthrush, Yellow-breasted Chat". IOC World Bird List Version 14.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- ^ Baird, Spencer F. (1858). Reports of explorations and surveys to ascertain the most practical and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean made under the direction of the secretary of war in 1853-1856. Vol. 9 Birds. Washington: Beverly Tucker, printer. p. 248.
- ^ Bock, Walter J. (1994). History and Nomenclature of Avian Family-Group Names. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. Vol. 222. New York: American Museum of Natural History. pp. 117, 155, 213, 224.
- .
- ^ PMID 30936315.
- ISBN 0-7136-3932-6.
- ^ Yellow-breasted Chat, Life History, All About Birds – Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Allaboutbirds.org. Retrieved on 2012-08-24.
- ^ a b Yellow-breasted Chat. Wbu.com. Retrieved on 2012-08-24.
Further reading
- Thompson, C.F.; Eckerle, K.P. (2022). Rodewald, P.G.; Keeney, B.K. (eds.). "Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens), version 2.0". Birds of the World. Ithaca, NY, USA: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
External links
- Yellow-breasted chat at AviBase
- Yellow-breasted chat at CT Department of Environmental Protection
- Yellow-breasted chat Species Account – Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Yellow-breasted chat – USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
- Stamps[usurped] (for Antigua and Barbuda)
- Yellow-breasted chat videos on the Internet Bird Collection
- Yellow-breasted chat photo gallery VIREO
- Yellow-breasted chat bird sound