Icteria virens
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens) is a large songbird in its own family, Icteriidae, that is found in North and Central America. It was once placed in the New World warbler family Parulidae and is occasionally placed in the similarly named New World blackbird family, Icteridae.
The yellow-breasted chat was formally described in 1758 by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus Turdus, coined the binomial name Turdus virens, and specified the type locality as "America". The specific epithet is Latin meaning 'green'. The locality has been restricted to South Carolina. Linnaeus based his account on the "yellow brested chat" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. It is now the only species placed in the genus Icteria that was introduced in 1808 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. It is also the only species placed in the family Icteriidae that was introduced (as Icterieae) in 1858 by the American naturalist Spencer Baird.
The yellow-breasted chat was formerly... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | León | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 2 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | San Antonio | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 7 | Guadalajara | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 8 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 9 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Zoological Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-breasted Chat sighting in Houston on a given day, based on 868 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 108th most-seen of the 302 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-breasted Chat in Houston on a given day, against under 5% in May to March, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-breasted Chat sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 32
Of the 32 cities where we can rate Yellow-breasted Chat sightings, Houston ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in León (México, about 10%).
Same family: Parulidae
The closest relatives of the Yellow-breasted Chat that you can see in Houston (family Parulidae, New World Warblers) are Yellow-rumped Warbler (about 40%), Orange-crowned Warbler (about 20%) and Pine Warbler (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-breasted Chat is recorded against all the birds logged in Houston (868 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
