yellow eyed babbler

The yellow-eyed babbler is about 18 centimetres (7.1 in) long with a short bill and a long graduated tail. The body above is brown and the wings are cinnamon coloured. The lores and supercilium are white and the rim of the eye is orange-yellow in adult birds. The beak is black. The underside is whitish buff. The central tail feathers are about twice as long as the outermost. The sexes are indistinguishable in the field.

Tall grass and bushes

insects, larvae; also flower nectar.

Song a variable, rapid twittering trill tri-rit-ri-ri-ri-ri ending in a two-noted toway-twoh.

The yellow-eyed babbler (Chrysomma sinense) is a passerine bird native to South and Southeast Asia. It inhabits shrubland grassland and wetland habitats. On the IUCN Red List it is listed as Least Concern because of its wide distribution and stable population. Its common name refers to the traditional placement in the Old World babbler family Timaliidae although the genus Chrysomma forms a clade along with the parrotbills and Sylvia warblers within the family Sylviidae. The yellow-eyed babbler is about 18 centimetres (7.1 in) long with a short bill and a long graduated tail. The body above is brown and the wings are cinnamon coloured. The lores and supercilium are white and the rim of the eye is orange-yellow in adult birds. The beak is black. The underside is whitish buff. The central tail feathers are about twice as long as the outermost. The sexes are indistinguishable in the field. Within its wide distribution range there are some differences in plumages between populations that have been considered as subspecies. The nominate subspecies is found in Burma Laos and Thailand. The population in Sri Lanka nasale has black nostrils and a stouter bill. The population across much of India hypoleucum has yellow nostrils (as with the nominate subspecies) and is paler in plumage. The population in the northeast Duars of India has an almost slaty crown and darker wings and has been called as saturatius or saturatior but this is considered as clinal variation and included in the nominate population. The range of the yellow-eyed babbler extends from Pakistan through India Nepal Sri Lanka to Bangladesh Myanmar Thailand Laos Viet Nam and China. The usual habitat is grassy or thorny scrub both in dry and wet regions as well as farmland. It occurs mainly on the plains but also in the lower hills 1200 m. It is absent in the dense forest region of the Western Ghats and occurs only on the eastern edges or in gaps such as at Palghat.