: but more accurately rarely detected late Aug-early Oct with to early Nov. Dec-Feb mostly at bird feeding stations. No Mar-July records.
Miscellany: Given their skulking ways and preference for thick tangles one could easily go years without seeing a chat but past bird banding programs, especially on Mount Desert Rock, give evidence as to how numerous they can be. In 1981 banders on the Rock captured 14 chats on one mid-September day and four days later caught another 10. More recently banders in the Seawall area caught 21 chats during their abbreviated 2010-2012 fall banding seasons.
Yellow-breasted Chats that show up every fall, following a route north and east from their more southerly breeding areas and directly away from their normal wintering grounds, are loosely termed ‘reverse migrants. It's not clear why they do this. Chats are taxonomically interesting as well. For years they were considered ‘odd' warblers in spite of many obvious differences, but very recently, and proving how odd they really are, they were given their own family (!), the Icteriidae.
Last Updated: January 2nd, 2024