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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Yellow-breasted Chat in NH!





There's a Yellow-breasted Chat in New Hampshire, a surprise bird, out of it's usual range. We went to see this cool warbler Sun., in the backyard of some birders lucky enough to have this avian celebrity. Yellow-breasted Chat is classified with warblers, but it doesn't seem like a warbler. It's big and slow and large-billed compared to tiny, hyper, delicate warblers. The backyard had just what Chats like, lots of tangled growth of brambles and shrubs to hang out in. The Chat was being pampered with oranges and dried mealworms, which she scampered out happily to consume. 

This NH Yellow-breasted Chat is a female (the male has black lores with black bill and gray lower base to bill, female has gray lores and brownish bill with yellowish-pink base to lower mandible.) She is the virens subspecies which occurs from e. SD-e. TX and east and these birds have  a white moustachial stripe that is small and narrow and stops below the eye.  Below are photos of a bird I photographed in GA in winter and it is the auricollis subspecies which occurs from s. SK-w. TX and west, vag. to GA and has a white moustachial stripe that is large and white and extends to behind eye.




7 comments:

grammie g said...

I brilliant yellow color that surely won't be missed !!
Beautiful photos...hope it knows when to get out of town, before the winter winds really start to blow!! At least it is getting well feed! : )
Grace

Unknown said...

What a cool sighting, especially this late in the year. Some of those little birds sure get their migration wires crossed...to the delight of we birders who love to see birds outside of traditional ranges.

Kay G. said...

Oh boy, we saw one and we were so excited to identify it! It was near Lake Alexander at Panola Park in Georgia. The bird's song is so amazing, it sounded almost like a frog!

Kevin said...

What a cool bird to find in NH in November!

LNMP298 said...

Great pictures of the chat! It was around this time last year that a Yellow-breasted Chat was reported near Bryant Park in NYC, and I dragged my non-birder spouse there to see it. He located the chat before I did! That was a lifebird for me.

Lillian Stokes said...

what a nice life bird for you!

Bharatpur bird sanctuary said...

A perfect yellow color. Love to watch this bird in action.