Yellow-breasted Chat
Icteria virens · Songbirds
Yellow-breasted Chat
Green-Wood Cemetery, 17 May 2026
A Yellow-breasted Chat in the thicket at Green-Wood, which is where a chat is nearly always found: buried in dense scrub, heard far more often than seen. It breeds in the tangles and old fields of the eastern and southern states and is a scarce passage bird in Brooklyn.
Long classified as an oversized, oddball wood-warbler and only recently split into its own family entirely, on the strength of a voice and a repertoire of behaviour - whistles, chuckles, harsh rattles, and a floppy, deliberate display flight - that never fit comfortably alongside the true warblers. A heavy bill and a bright yellow throat and breast, set off by a white spectacle around the eye, are the field marks.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
Every photograph comes with notes on what it is.
Selected
Favourite shots. Filter by subject, or .
Places
Everything, by where it was taken.
Species
Larger catalogue of photos organized by species of animal or plant.
Catalogue
Every photograph, newest first. Narrow it by period, place or species; the three work together.
Updates
Coming soon. Sign up at the bottom of the page for updates.