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Hi Steve, The surprising answer to your first question is yes. Many sightings are reported in Nova Scotia each December (often resulting in good Christmas Bird Count totals) and every year a few are reported in January and occasionally in February. This is not a new phenomena. Robbie Tuft's noted the increasing number of Yellow-breasted Chat sightings through the 1970s and 80s and that trend appears to have continued to the present day. No doubt bird feeding is aiding in the survival of many of the birds that are being reported but they will eat berries and small fruit so some may be able to survive without the assistance. The individuals I see on Brier Island in August/September almost always have the telltale purple stains of blackberry/blueberry consumption on their beaks. Yellow-breasted Chats normally 'winter' in Mexico and other parts of Central America however from late August onwards many birds are sighted in Nova Scotia in what might be termed as a post-breeding dispersal. I believe the closest breeding areas are probably in the mid Atlantic states or south of the Great Lakes (though I seem to recall breeding reports from New Brunswick in the first Maritimes Breeding Bird Atlas) so that is probably the source of Nova Scotia's vagrants. All the best, Lance ==================== Lance Laviolette Glen Robertson, Ont. ==================== -----Original Message----- From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] On Behalf Of Steve Shaw Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 7:33 PM To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca Subject: EXTERNAL: [NatureNS] Do Y-B Chats overwinter regularly here? As a non-birder, never seen a yellow-breasted chat before, but today in the snow had one alternating with a few juncos and a rampant squirrel on a hanging feeder, eating seeds (nyger, hulled sunflower, black-oil sf and cracked corn available). Was seemingly healthy, but hard to photo clearly through the screen of snowflakes. Are seeds what they normally eat/prefer? Upper bill black but lower bill whitish so likely a first year female, according to the illustration in Sibley (though he doesn't illustrate a first year male, so maybe they have white lower bills too?). Shouldn't yellow-breasted chats all be down in Central America by now? -- looking outside, I think that's where I'd prefer to be as well. A flicker was visited one of the hanging suet+peanut butter logs earlier today -- it does this only very occasionally here, while downy w-ps are regulars. Steve Halifax
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