Fe1+yTe with y < ∼ 0.05 exhibits a first-order phase transition on cooling to a state with a lowered structural symmetry, bicollinear antiferromagnetic order, and metallic conductivity, dρ/dT > 0. Here, we study samples with y = 0.09(1), where the frustration effects of the interstitial Fe decouple different orders, leading to a sequence of transitions. While the lattice distortion is closely followed by incommensurate magnetic order, the development of bicollinear order and metallic electronic coherence is uniquely associated with a separate hysteretic first-order transition, at a markedly lower temperature, to a phase with dramatically enhanced bond-order wave (BOW) order. The BOW state suggests ferro-orbital ordering, where electronic delocalization in ferromagnetic zigzag chains decreases local spin and results in metallic transport. In a pattern common with cuprates, iron pnictide and chalcogenide superconductors (FeSC) have parent phases, which, upon cooling, undergo antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering and structural distortion(s) lowering the high-temperature tetragonal (HTT) paramagnetic lattice symmetry [1,2]. They also host strong magnetic fluctuations, a hallmark of unconventional superconductivity [3]. Recently, there has also been strong experimental evidence of broken electronic symmetry, "nematicity", accompanying, or preceding the magnetic/lattice ordered phase, reminiscent of stripes in cuprates [4]. The physics driving these phenomena, their inter-relation and relation to the superconductivity remain unclear [2].Unlike cuprates, the Fe-based materials have several unfilled 3d bands. Their parent magnetic phases have well-defined Fermi surfaces, indicating a metallic nature [4,5]. Such "weak Mott-ness" and itinerancy, combined with orbital degeneracy entangled with the magnetic and lattice degrees of freedom, leads to the proliferation of theoretical models and approaches: strong coupling where physics is spin-driven [6], weak coupling where it is determined by properties of the electronic Fermi surface [7], or mixed spin-orbital models [8][9][10]. The experimental evidence enabling one to distinguish among these models is, however, still scarce. Here we present such evidence for the case of Fe 1+y Te, the end member of the chalcogenide family of FeSC, where correlation effects are the strongest [11]. By combining the results of bulk characterization of electronic behavior and neutron diffraction data on the temperature evolution of the microscopic structure we are able to disentangle different low-temperature orders and show that the transition to the magnetically-ordered state [12,13], illustrated in Fig. 1(b), is electronically driven through ferro-orbital ordering of zigzag Fe-Fe chains.The iron-chalcogenides Fe 1+y Te 1+x Se x , with T c ≈ 14.5 K at optimal doping, consist of a continuous stacking of Fe square-lattice layers, separated by two halffilled chalcogen (Te,Se) layers [14][15][16]. Predicted by band structure calculations to be a metal [5], nonsuperconducting parent material Fe 1+y T...