Laura Erickson's For the Birds

This extraordinary bird mystifies scientists, who don’t know how to classify it for sure. Currently it’s the only member of the family Icteriidae, but that is not satisfyingly resolved for taxonomists. It had formerly been classified in the wood warbler family, but was always considered an outlier.

For such a loud, persistent singer, the chat is a secretive skulker, very hard to see in the brushy habitat where it’s found.