Babblers

Jungle Babbler

Familiar, plain, dull-coloured babbler, with somewhat variable grey-brown plumage; lightly streaked on mantle, scapulars; lightly mottled and streaked on paler underparts; sturdy pale yellow bill; white irises, pale yellowish eye ring; short dark brow giving an irate appearance; very gregarious; always in parties of six or more; noisy, skittish, easily alarmed; constantly contactcalling within the group; often the first birds in a mixed group to give the alarm; forages on ground in leaf litter, but also flies into bushes and trees.

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Large Grey Babbler

Sexes alike. Grey-brown above; dark centres to feathers on back give streaked look; greyer forehead; long graduated tail cross-rayed with white outer feathers, conspicuous in flight; fulvous-grey below. Gregarious; flocks in open country, sometimes dozens together; extremely noisy; moves on ground and in medium-sized trees; hops about, turning over leaves on ground; weak flight, never for long; at any sign of danger, the flock comes together.

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Common Babbler

Sexes alike. Dull brown above, profusely streaked; brown wings; olivish-brown tail long and graduated, crossrayed darker; dull white throat; pale fulvous underbody, streaked on breast sides. Pairs or small bands in open scrub; skulker, working its way low in bush or on ground; moves with peculiar bouncing hop on the ground, the long, loose-looking tail cocked up; extremely wary, vanishing into scrub at slightest alarm; weak flight, evident when flock moves from one scrub patch to another, in ones and twos.

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Yellow-eyed Babbler

Sexes alike. Rufous-brown above; whitish lores, short supercilium; yellow eye (iris) and orange-yellow eye-rim distinctive at close range; cinnamon wings; long, graduated tail; white below, tinged pale fulvous on flanks and abdomen. Pairs or small bands in tall grass and undergrowth; noisy but skulking, suddenly  clambering into view for a few seconds, before vanishing once again; works its way along stems and leaves, hunting insects; short, jerky flight.

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