Ode to the Yellow-breasted Chat

Hiking through mud, thick and slippery, puts a damper on anyone’s enthusiasm. Such was the case for my intern and me on a humid summer morning, making our way to our first Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo survey point.  Slogging silently and grumpily down a soggy riverbed, my intern suddenly brightens, as if lit from within, and practically shouts and points hopefully “is that a cuckoo?” No, I reply, it is a Yellow-breasted Chat. Deflated, we walk on for three more vocalizations and inquiries—“a cuckoo?” Me: nope, a Chat. It got to the point that the intern would just look at me and point to some crazy array of sounds and I’d shake my head. Chats, all.  

“Strange” is adjective that eBird chose to begin its description of this feathered odd-ling. Once believed to be North America’s largest warbler, it has now been moved to its own family, Icteriidae. This name literally means “the jaundiced ones” presumedly because of the birds’ yellow plumage. Despite its seemingly conspicuous appearance, Yellow-breasted Chats are rarely seen and prefer to skulk in dense riparian underbrush while uttering an endless repertoire with descriptions including: rattling, tweeting, squawking. meowing, purring, shaking a maraca, bemoaning a loss, the list goes on—you get the point. 

Why all this noise from such a pretty bird? To show off, of course. Males and females are identical in appearance and share household duties but only the males “sing” (or whatever). Monogamous? Ha! No. The species has an odd behavior of singing at night and making nocturnal visits to sites outside of their breeding habitat nicknamed “night clubs” for a little “fun”. Let’s just say that nestlings are regularly of mixed parentage and females are of course in on this as well.  

Yellow-breasted Chats are neotropical migrants wintering primarily in Mexico and Central America before making the journey north to our western riparian corridors. In the U.S., they are considered an indicator of habitat health because they have fairly high standards—they need brushy, multi-storied native vegetation with a rich insect population. If you hear a Chat, you likely have water, shade, and a good diversity of plants and bugs.  

Yellow-breasted Chats are a sturdy species that are for now holding their own, thanks to people like you making sure that rivers in the Southwest stay healthy and protected. If you haven’t already, make your voice heard through the Western Water Action Network.  

Back to the muddy Yellow-billed Cuckoo survey morning—I returned to a beaming  intern after my bathroom break— “you saw a cuckoo?!!” No, they said “I saw a chat, and they are so beautiful and cool”.  Indeed.