Chat: A Bird True to it’s Name

I met with local ear-birder Mike Skram and natural sound recordist Greg Weddig this morning to look for a bird species named in part for it’s ‘talkative’ ways: the Yellow-breasted Chat. After finding five individuals of this species who apparently only wanted to ‘crow and go’ we finally located a pair of very assertive males who really wanted to ‘chat’ and we were serenaded for 15 minutes.

Yellow-breasted Chat is a unique bird in many ways. Often referred to as “the sound of the rainforest” chats perform an amazingly varied repertoire of whistles, clucks, chortles and squawks that remind many of the diverse sounds of the tropical jungle, which just happens to be where these birds travel from to get here. Chats migrate from as far south as the Darien region of the Panamanian Isthmus and consistently arrive in northern California sometime within the last two weeks of April. Once here the males perform ‘moth-like’ display flights as they establish and then patrol a large breeding territory. Once pairs form the males become much less boisterous and the soft spoken female almost never ventures from the low, dense brush where they build their nest. Chats are nearly as visually vibrant as their songs are rich, with a bright yellow breast and dark-gray mask with white ‘goggles’.

Habitat restoration, and the removal of non-native scotch broom and Himalayan blackberry at the Butte Creek Ecological Preserve prompted resident bird bander Dawn Garcia to seek baseline information on the number of breeders of this species at this location. Busy with a seasonal position surveying birds in the Redding area, Dawn asked Mike Skram and I to assist by conducting a census of Chats defending territories. We both jumped at the chance to search for these entertaining and attractive birds.

Greg Weddig, a seasoned specialist in recording natural sound-scapes was interested in trying out his parabolic dish for targeting individual bird songs. I invited him to join us and he was not disappointed. After attempting to record a number of evasive chats the dueling pair provided some sensational recordings which we hope to incorporate into a pilot radio program.

Upon her return, Dawn will be pleased to learn that we had what we believe to be seven distinct Yellow-breasted Chat territories along the mile stretch of creek within the preserve.