Bird Guide

Jungle Babbler vs Yellow-billed Babbler

Jungle Babbler (Argya striata)

Jungle Babbler

Argya striata

66 gUrban

The jungle babbler's habitat is forest and cultivation. This species, like most babblers, is non-migratory, and has short rounded wings and a weak flight. The sexes are identical, drably coloured in brownish grey with a yellow-bill making them confusable only with the endemic yellow-billed babblers of peninsular India and Sri Lanka. The upper parts are usually slightly darker in shade and there is some mottling on the throat and breast. Subspecies somervillei of Maharashtra has a very rufous tail and dark primary flight feathers.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Jungle Babbler
Recorded by Jairam Vijayan · Duet, song · Payyavoor, Kannur, Kerala, India · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Kunwar Singh Virdi · CC0
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: Jungle Babbler and Yellow-billed Babbler.