Bristled Grassbird

The bristled grassbird, or bristled grass warbler, is large and brownish, with broad dark streaks on the crown and back feathers, and can look almost babbler-like, easily mistaken for a common babbler. The tail is graduated with white tips to the feathers, the tail's rachis dark with dark ribs, and the sexes are similar. It is endemic to the Indian subcontinent, patchily distributed in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan (Wikipedia, general species account).

It was thought mainly sedentary, with movements related to the rains, but may be migratory, breeding along the riverine plains south of the Himalaya and wintering further east and south in peninsular India. Hard to spot, it is usually seen briefly at the top of a grass clump before diving in, and mostly stays hidden inside grass clumps where it forages for insects. The usual clutch is four or five eggs, thought to be incubated by the female alone. SoIB 2023 rates it a High conservation priority, a within-India migrant of wetland with a Restricted range of about 19,100 km² and insufficient data on trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).