Palm Chat

Palm Chat

The palm chat would be quite a bland bird if it were not for its extravagant architectural abilities. The palm chat reaches approximately 7 inches in length and has green, brown and grey plumage with streaked white underparts. They have short, rounded wings and fairly long tails. This rather dull bird would for the most part go unnoticed if it were not for the apartment building nests which they construct high in the palm trees. These large nests, with individual compartments, are inhabited by about 4 palm chat couples. The nest is built using twigs up to 3 ft long and 1 inch in diameter--quite large for a small bird to carry 50 ft into the air. The nest is attached to palm fronds and eventually falls to the ground when the leaves die. The palm chat is found only on the West Indian islands of the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Gonave Island. [BM] {FW}