Tawny-bellied Babbler

The tawny-bellied babbler is a small babbler about 13cm long, including a long, round-tipped tail whose outer feathers are about half the length of the central ones. It is dark brown above and orange-buff below with a rufous-grey crown and stiff feathers on the forehead. Northern and eastern birds are uniformly buff below, while birds of the western peninsula and Sri Lanka have a white throat; the Sri Lankan form is also paler below with a larger, heavier bill (Wikipedia, general species account).

It forages in small groups in low scrub forest, and like other babblers has soft, fluffy plumage. Three subspecies are recognised, and populations intergrade. SoIB 2023 treats it as endemic to the Indian subcontinent and resident with a large range, finds its current trend stable, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).