Yellow-billed Babbler

The yellow-billed babbler is a grey-brown babbler with a grey throat and breast with some mottling, a pale buff belly, a grey head and nape and bluish-white eyes; the rump is pale and the tail has a broad dark tip. The nominate race of southern India has a whitish crown and nape and more heavily streaked throat and breast, while the Sri Lankan race is drab pale grey. It has at least seven distinct calls, higher-pitched than the harsh, nasal calls of the jungle babbler (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a common resident of scrub, cultivation and gardens. Like most babblers it does not migrate, has short rounded wings and a weak flight, and is usually seen in noisy groups calling and foraging together. It is often mistaken for the jungle babbler where the two overlap in southern India, but tends to use more vegetated habitats. SoIB 2023 treats it as endemic to the Indian subcontinent and resident with a large range, finds its trends stable, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).