Publications:

Literature Review

Yellow-breasted chat

Icteria virens

USFWS: No status
CDFG: Species of Special Concern

Background

Distribution, Abundance and Trends. The yellow-breasted chat is found throughout most of the United States, southern Canada, parts of Mexico, and south to Panama in the appropriate habitat. It is more often heard than seen, preferring to stay under cover in dense riparian thickets. The yellow-breasted chat nests in dense riparian thickets and brushy tangles in the lower portions of foothill canyons and in the lowlands. Its nest is a cup of dried leaves, coarse straw, and bark, lined with grasses, fine plant stems and leaves, built low in a bush, vine, or briar; there are typically 3 - 5 eggs laid from early May to mid July. It is primarily an insect eater but also eats wild berries and wild grapes.

This species is known to breed or is likely to breed in Whitewater Canyon, Mission Creek, Chino Canyon, and the Whitewater River between Mecca and the Salton Sea. It is possible that it breeds elsewhere in the Plan area as well. In migration, the yellow-breasted chat may use desert fan palm oasis woodland, mesquite hummocks, mesquite bosque, arrowweed scrub, desert dry wash woodland, desert sink scrub, desert saltbush scrub, southern sycamore-alder riparian woodland, Sonoran cottonwood-willow riparian forest, valley freshwater marsh, and cismontane alkali marsh in the plan area. It has been observed at Dos Palmas, the Coachella Valley Preserve, and Willow Hole. It has also been observed in Andreas Canyon on the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation. Individuals observed in these locations may have been in migration to other breeding areas outside the Plan area.

The yellow-breasted chat is in a general state of decline. The primary threat is loss of habitat, mainly due to flood control activities. They are also subject to cowbird parasitism. Human activities, including golf courses and agriculture, attract cowbirds, thereby increasing the threat to the species.

Threats and Limiting Factors. The primary threat to the yellow-breasted chat in the Plan area is destruction or degradation of habitat from flood control and other human activities. The extent to which this species is impacted by cowbird parasitism is not known.

Special Considerations. Effective control of cowbirds may be difficult because of the number of golf courses and agricultural areas in the Coachella Valley, which provide habitat for the cowbird.