Rufous-vented Grass Babbler

The rufous-vented grass babbler, or rufous-vented prinia, is a small warbler of the family Pellorneidae that occurs in Pakistan, north-western India and Nepal. It averages 17 cm long with a long, strongly graduated tail of 8.7 to 11.5 cm, the outermost pair of feathers only a third as long as the central pair. Adults are a cool brown above, except that a buffy region on the back of the neck and upper back forms a distinct collar, with faintly tawny off-white wing linings and greyish-brown flight feathers (Wikipedia, general species account).

Its calls include a wheezy feez and a quiet, very rapid nasal rattle, and the song is a liquid, loud warble about 4 seconds long, comparable to a dunnock's. It skulks low in grass tussocks, hopping and threading its way through, often in small groups, feeding on insects, and is easiest to find in the breeding season, when it sings in the mornings and evenings. SoIB 2023 treats it as an Indus Plains endemic and rates it a Moderate conservation priority, a resident of wetland with a Restricted range of about 9,950 km² and insufficient data on trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).