
Yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens)
Any of several species of songbird named for their harsh, chattering notes. True chats (chat-thrushes) make up a major division of the
thrush family (Turdidae). Australian chats (usually placed in the family Maluridae), which inhabit scrubby open lands, are about 5 in. (13 cm) long. The yellow-breasted chat (
Icteria virens, family Parulidae) of North America is the largest
wood warbler (7.5 in., or 19 cm, long). Greenish gray above and bright yellow below, with white “spectacles,” it hides in thickets but may perch in the open to utter its mewing, churring, and whistling sounds.
Seealso redstart.
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.