Yellow-billed babbler
This species, like most babblers, is not migratory, and has short rounded wings and a weak flight and is usually seen calling and foraging in groups.It is often mistaken for the jungle babbler, whose range overlaps in parts of southern India, although it has a distinctive call and tends to be found in more vegetated habitats.Birds in the extreme south of India are very similar to the Sri Lankan subspecies with the colour of the crown and back being more grey than the nominate race.[5] The Sri Lankan subspecies resembles the jungle babbler, Turdoides striatus, although that species does not occur on the island.It is a very noisy bird, and the presence of a flock may generally be known at some distance by the continual chattering, squeaking and chirping produced by its members.[11] Nests of the species are seen throughout the year but the peak breeding season is prior to the onset of the Indian southwest monsoon.Brood parasitism of the babblers' nests by the pied cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus) is known from both India and Sri Lanka.Like most perching birds, the parents take care of nest sanitation, removing the faecal sacs of the young, typically by swallowing them.
Sri LankaConservation statusLeast ConcernIUCN 3.1Scientific classificationEukaryotaAnimaliaChordataPasseriformesLeiothrichidaeBinomial nameJerdonSynonymsspeciesmigratoryjungle babblerTurdoides leucocephalaTurdoidesmolecular phylogeneticorange-billed babblerCalotes versicolorBlack drongosrufous treepiesIndian palm squirrelsSivakasiBrood parasitismpied cuckoocommon hawk-cuckoojungle babblersfeedingHelpersgreater coucalPtyas mucosusSinhala languageTamil NaduTamil languageBirdLife InternationalIUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesGill, FrankNewsletter for BirdwatchersWikidataBirdLifeiNaturalistOpen Tree of LifeXeno-canto