I’ve never seen a Yellow-breasted Chat. This week the NYC Rare Bird Alert reported one hanging around the Public Library / Bryant Park area in midtown. Since I was going down to the Javitts Center for the NY Gift Fair anyway, I figured why not chase a rare bird and add a lifer in Manhattan.
A Chat is considered a warbler, but is much larger with a different shape than most warblers. Except for its color, the Chat seems more like a catbird or a mockingbird than a warbler.
I didn’t want to bring my binoculars. Most people would look at me like a tourist. Besides, I figured I did not need them – there couldn’t be a lot of trees and bushes to hide in around 5th Avenue and 42nd Street.
Well, it turns out there is plenty of vegetation, or at least enough, so that I never did see the Chat. It was lunch time so the Chat may have been relaxing at a nearby café or, maybe, researching books of maps at the library.
Maybe this spring I will get to see my first Chat.
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