I still fondly recall the very first Yellow-breasted Chat I encountered at Pheasant Branch Conservancy. It was early June 2007. While talking with another birder, I suddenly heard the chat's funky song call out from the south slope of the hill. I was positively thrilled. Though there were sporadic sightings from 2008 to 2011, this secretive and sensitive-to-disturbance species became regular nesters for the next 3 years, and then poof ― gone! This amazingly cool near-ground nester was last observed at the prairie on July 13th, 2014.
Why? Another mystery...
Yellow-breasted Chat © 2017 Mike McDowell