Bird Guide

Common Babbler vs Yellow-billed Babbler

Common Babbler (Argya caudata)

Common Babbler

Argya caudata

Small39 gShrubland

This small, slim babbler with a long tail is buff to grey above with dark streaks. The underside is unstreaked and paler, the throat being nearly whitish. The species was originally described as Crateropus caudatus before it was moved to the genus Argya and still later to Turdoides. The species ending was, however, retained in these new combinations but the corrected feminine form caudata matches the Latin gender of the genus Turdoides.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Parth Kansara · CC BY 4.0
Yellow-billed Babbler (Argya affinis)

Yellow-billed Babbler

Argya affinis

63 gShrubland

These birds have grey brown upperparts, a grey throat and breast with some mottling, and a pale buff belly. The head and nape are grey, and the eyes are bluish white. The nominate race, found in southern India, has a whitish crown and nape, with a darker mantle. The rump is pale and the tail has a broad dark tip. The Sri Lankan subspecies A. a. taprobanus is drab pale grey. 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.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Yellow-billed Babbler
Recorded by Vihansith Kulatunga · Call · Palaiyoothu, Trincomalee, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Devilal · CC0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Common Babbler and Yellow-billed Babbler.