birdsoup

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 5^th Avenue and 42^nd 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.