Yellow-breasted Chat

The Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens) is a unique migratory songbird whose breeding range extends across most of the western and eastern United States, central Mexico, and the southern parts of western Canada. In British Columbia’s Okanagan and Similkameen valleys, the Yellow-breasted Chat is listed as federally endangered.

Team: Johanna Beam from the Toews Lab at the Pennsylvania State University lead this project as one of her PhD dissertation chapters. Other collaborators include Michael Russello at the University of British Columbia and Blanca Estela Hernandez-Banos from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).

Results: We have identified two genetically distinct populations across the breeding range: Western (blue) and Eastern (red). The Yellow-breasted Chat species complex contains two subspecies: auricollis in western North America and virens in the eastern United States. Broadly, the two genetic groups align with these subspecies designations and are accompanied by plumage and morphological differences.