a web page by Don Roberson |
BABBLERS Timaliidae Laughingthrushes, Typical Babblers & White-eyes |
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 The
true Babblers are a huge family of (mostly) tropical forest birds in
the Old World. There is much diversity within the family. A good chunk
(50 species; 19%) are called laughingthrushes in the genus Garrulax. These are rangy, mid-sized, floppy-tailed landbirds like Streaked Laughingthrush
(left) of the Himalayan mid-elevations. Streaked Laughingthrush is easy
to observe as it forages in pairs in open rocky areas in the mountains;
its foraging behavior, its size, and the fact one finds it mostly in
closely-knit pairs all resemble the California Towhees Pipilo crissalis
in my home county. Many other laughingthrushes, though, are elusive
species in thick jungle, best located by voice. On a multi-week trip to
India, for example, we heard noisy flocks of the striking and
widespread White-crested Laughingthrush Garrulax leucolophus
several times — sometimes quite close — and yet Rita and I only saw
them on our next-to-final day and then only in flight across a small
densely vegetated canyon. All the other times it sounded like they were
laughing at us! |
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Asia is the center of timalid diversity. Some babblers are tiny and colorful like Chestnut-tailed Minla (above left), beautifully photographed in n. India by Ron Saldino. They and other small babblers can be found in mixed species flocks or isolated pairs inside the forest. Those babblers known as yuhinas (10 species in genus Yuhina) recall North American titmice in their behavior and small crests but many are much more colorful, like Chestnut-crested Yuhina (above right) in the montane forests of Borneo. But names do not mean everything. In recent years we have learned that a lot of birds once considered babblers are not closely related to them at all. Some examples are:
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Before the recent biochemical research, Fry, Keith & Urban (2000) described the Timaliidae this way: "A large, heterogeneous, mainly Asiatic family with a complex taxonomic history and fluctuating composition — many taxa have been moved between Timaliidae and Sylviidae [Old World warblers] or Turdidae [Thrushes]. Small to quite large passerines, robust, strong-legged, often pale-eyed ... sexes usually alike, rather sombre ... Bills more robust than those of Sylviidae (probably the closest relatives of babblers)... Characteristic egg-white protein profile. Syrinx lacks 'turdine thumb' which is so characteristic of Turdidae and Muscicapidae [Old World Flycatchers]... Flight weak -- short flights low in dense vegetation, or of 50m very low over open ground between clumps of shrubs.... Numerous babblers stay in small family parties year-round and are known or likely co-operative breeders; individuals of many species clump or huddle tightly together when loafing and roosting...". Some of these generalities still apply, although genetic evidence now allows us to clearly separate babblers from thrushes or any of the several families into which the Old World Warblers have been divided. |
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| Most babblers have a rather subdued plumage pattern although bright rufous appears in a good many species. Some examples of fairly typical babbler types scattered among the wide geographic range of babblers include these: Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush (below left) of montane forests in Borneo, Sumatra & Malaya; Red-billed Leiothrix (below center in a good shot by Ron Saldino) widespread in the Himalayan foothills (and introduced into Hawaii); and Javan Fulvetta (below right) restricted to the mountains of central & western Java. | |||
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| Babblers can be very vocal. Among the Asian babblers are 17 species of fulvettas — another fairly large set of babblers (genus Alcippe)
— all of which have very plain plumage but many of which have lovely
songs given with much verve and energy. Recently I watched a very dull
Brown-cheeked Fulvetta A. poioicephala in Assam, India,
transform itself into a thing of beauty by lustily giving a complex
song from a song perch low in the undergrowth of Panbari Forest. Among
African babblers are the drab but beautifully vocal illadopsis (7
species in the namesake genus) which recall the fulvettas of Asia. A goodly portion of the babblers are ground-loving species, elusive and difficult to observe in the forest understory. Some of my favorites are the wren-babblers — Asia's version of gnateaters. Most of these are quite small, chubby, long-legged birds with various patterns of spots or streaks in brown, blackish, or rufescent plumage. There are 20 wren-babblers in 5 genera, almost any one of which is the highlight of any day's birding. Some are quite specialized (limestone hills, swamps, bamboo, humid fern forest) and a fair number are rare and local; others are endemic to Borneo, or the Philippines, or Sumatra. [Note, however, that one traditional genera of wren-babbler (Pnoepyga) is not within the babbler lineage at all, and is now assigned its own family, Pnoepygidae]. |
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 In contrast to the difficult forest babblers, 29 species (10% of all babblers) are open-country birds in the genus Turdoides.
A few are marsh birds but most occur in open savanna or thornscrub
where they travel in small noisy family parties, often leap-frogging
each other as they move quickly from bush to bush so that the whole
party appears to be "rolling" across the plain. The Jungle Babbler
(left) is quite common in the dry forests of the Indian subcontinent;
in Ranthambhor Nat'l Park it has become so tame that it searches the
tourist's jeeps for tidbits. And while the vast majority of babblers
are Asian species, 37 species occur in Africa including 14 of the Turdoides babblers. |
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Seventy species (74%) of all white-eyes are placed in the genus Zosterops, and these small birds are often found in chattering flocks moving through the canopy. Some are common and widespread, but there are a good many rare or endangered species in the group, including 21 (nearly a quarter of all species) that were threatened enough to warrant accounts in Collar et al. (1994). |
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Many species are isolated on oceanic islands, as is the Caroline Islands White-eye (left), endemic to Truk (Chuuk), Palau & Pohnpei in Micronesia. When I first visited Micronesia in 1978, the widespread white-eye over much of the region was considered a single species, the Bridled White-eye Z. conspicillatus. Thus, when I photographed this bird (left) on Truk, it was considered just one of the island races of Bridled White-eye. Now, however, Bridled White-eye has been split into at least two species and the bird I photographed is known as the Caroline Island White-eye (Pratt 1987, Sibley & Monroe 1991). [There is a special irony associated with that decision and this photo. Years after I visited Micronesia, I purchased, sight unseen, a booklet called The Native Forest Birds of Guam (Jenkins 1983). Upon opening it, I was shocked to find that my photograph of "Bridled White-eye" (the very same bird shown above top left) was featured in color on the frontispiece of the publication! No one had asked my permission to do so, but there it was in living color. At least they spelled my name correctly and did attribute the bird to Truk.....but how odd that a species that has never occurred on Guam is the featured photo in the book on Guam.] |
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All of the white-eyes I've photographed have broad white eye-rings, but a fair number do not, and sometime go by names such as "Black-eyes." There is a unique little bird on w. Timor which has been called the Timor White-eye (Clements 1991), the Spot-breasted White-eye (Sibley & Monroe 1991), the Spot-breasted Black-eye, and the Timor Ibon. Barbara Magnuson, who has seen this species with a Ben King tour, tells me that birds leap-frogged over one another, recalling New World manakins. It and a related species on Flores are in their own genus (Heleia) and it is possible that these birds are not white-eyes at all. Indeed, Heleia, along with such genera as Rukia in Micronesia, Megazosterops in Palau, Woodfordia in the Solomons, and Hypocryptadius in the Philippines may be another group of birds entirely. Some preliminary DNA work has placed Rukia near Zosterops (Sibley & Monroe 1991), but most of these taxa have not been studied. I've seen a couple of them, and could easily believe they were a family separate and distinct from the otherwise rather homogenous white-eyes. All lack the broad white eye-rings and none act like typical white-eyes, and so the word "White-eye" in their name is misleading. For that reason, Ben King has suggested the Tagalog word for "small bird" as an appropriate moniker: "Ibon." Thus Hypocryptadius cinnamomeus becomes the Cinnamon Ibon rather than the misnomer "Cinnamon White-eye" of Clements (1991). No group deserves a different name more than these poorly studied, obscure, non-Zosterops "white-eyes." I applaud "Ibon" as a wonderfully coined choice! [Be the first one on your block to use such a cool name....] |
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| Photos: The Streaked Laughingthrush Garrulax lineatus was photographed at Sat Tal in northern India in March 2001. The Silver-eye Zosterops lateralis was eating a crab-apple on Heron I., Great Barrier Reef, Australia, in Sep 1983. James Eaton photographed the Mountain Wren-Babbler Napothera crassa on Mt. Kinabalu, Malaysian Borneo, in June 2002. Ron Saldino photographed the Chestnut-tailed Minla Minla strigula near Lava in w. Bengal, India in late Feb 2001. The Chestnut-crested Yuhina Yuhina everetti was on Mt. Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia, on 5 Aug 1988, as was the Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush Garrulax mitratus. Ron Saldino photographed the Red-billed Leiothrix Leiothrix lutea near Corbett Nat'l Park, India in mid-March 2001. The Javan Fulvetta Alcippe pyrrhoptera was in Gede Nat'l Park, Java, Indonesia, on 27 Aug 1988. The family of Bare-cheeked Babbler Turdoides gymnogenys was in Erusha Nat'l Park, Namibia, in July 2005. The Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler Pomatorhinus erythrogenys was at Sat Tal in the Himalayan foothills of Uttar Pradesh, India, in March 2001. The Jungle Babbler Turdoides striatus was in Ranthambhor Nat'l Park, Rajasthan, India, on 23 Mar 2001. The Mountain White-eye Zosterops montanawas on Mt. Kitanglad, Mindanao, Philippines, on 24 Dec 2005. The Caroline Islands White-eye Zosterops semperi was photographed on Moen I., Truk Lagoon, Micronesia, on 31 Aug 1978. The Réunion Olive White-eye Z. olivaceus was in the forest above Le Brulé, Réunion I., Indian Ocean, on 4 Dec 1992. All photos © Don Roberson except those attributed to Ron Saldino or James Eaton, respectively, who hold those copyrights (used with permission here); all rights reserved. | |||
Bibliographic notes There is no recent "family book" covering the Babblers but good recent coverage of African species is in Fry et al. (2000), and the Handbook of the Birds of the World account (Collar & Robson 2007) is wonderful, with exceptional photos, although it could not have been quite up with the most current taxonomic findings. Literature cited:
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We
are only slowly learning how to define babblers. It has long been an
ornithological joke that the Timaliidae was the "dust-bin" for Old
World birds of uncertain origin: in 1896 Alfred Newman called babbler
taxonomy "a festering mass" (Collar & Robson 2007). Studies in the
mid-2000s began to clarify the situation (e.g., Cibois 2003,
Alström et al. 2006, Jønsson & Fjeldså 2006) but
there is uncertainty whether the huge babbler assemblage should be
allocated to one or two families. Genetic evidence revealed that the Sylvia
warblers — the original, base genus in the 'Old World Warblers'
Sylviidae — is more closely related to Babblers than other Old World
Warblers [see a 
Gelang
et al. (2009) also found, based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA
evidence, that babblers evolved within seven significant clades within
the two major lineages. One big surprise was that one of a half-dozen
genera of wren-babblers — the four species in genus Pnoepygidae
— were not within any babbler lineage. They recommended a new family,
the Pnoepygidae, for those tiny, short-tailed, "wren-babblers." The
remaining genera of birds termed wren-babbl
This
still leaves well over 300 babblers. Asia is the center of babbler
distribution but they also occur in Africa. This family group of Bare-cheeked Babbler
(right) in Namibia were huddled together on one branch, a behavior I've
also seen in other species of babbler in Tanzania and in northern
China. A fair number of species forage together in loose family
groupings. 
Another set of mostly undergrowth species are the 9 species of scimitar-babblers in the genus Pomatorhinus.
These have long decurved bills used to work through the leaf litter —
very like the thrashers of North America which they also resemble in
size and body shape. An example is Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler
(right) of mountain foothills from India to n. Thailand. Like all birds
of shady habitats, it is difficult to snap a photo without a complex
flash set-up but perhaps you can get an idea of this group from this
white-eyed, pale-billed species. The 7 species of babblers in the genus
Pellorneum are also elusive skulkers. Additional forest
species that can be difficult to locate are mid-canopy species such as
barwings (6 species in Actinodura), sibias (7 species in Heterophasia) and two species of Crocias (Crocias). There are also numerous babblers, some occurring in mixed forest flocks and others as territorial pairs, in the genera Stachyris (28 species), Malacopteron (6 species) and Trichastoma (4 species) to mention just a few others.
It
is now known that the white-eyes are genetically embedded within the
Babblers; The white-eyes are a mostly homogeneous, Old World tropical
group of small arboreal birds. The name comes not from a white iris,
but from a white-feathered ring that is a prominent feature around a
dark eye of many of these otherwise plain little green birds. Some
standard characters include a brush-tipped tongue for feeding on nectar
(along with insects), semi-pendant nests, and (where known) pale blue
or white eggs (Coates 1990). Some of the white-eyes are montane
specialists, as is the Mountain White-eye (right) on
the Philippines. On some of the larger Philippine islands, three
species of white-eyes divide up elevational zones. Where that occurs,
this species is always at the highest elevation.
White-eyes
are widely distributed in the Old World, with continental
representatives in Africa, Asia, and Australian. However, there are an
inordinate number of island specialties, and no group of birds is such
an "island specialist" (excepting, perhaps, the megapodes). By my
count, 83 white-eyes (88%) are restricted to islands and do not occur
on any major continent, and 70 species (three-quarters of all
white-eyes) occur on only rather small islands (excluding New Guinea,
Borneo, Sumatra, Madagascar, and the larger Philippine islands). There
are two white-eyes endemic to tiny Lifou Island in the Loyalties off
New Caledonia, and many species seem to be described in Clements (1991)
like this for the White-throated White-eye Z. meeki: "Uplands of Tagula
Island (off se New Guinea). Status unknown." No wonder I've seen only a
third of the world's white-eyes!
Each
of the islands in the Gulf of Guinea, Africa, has its own endemic, as
do most of the islands in the Indian Ocean. Some of those
representatives, like the Seychelles White-eye Z. modestus
(which I poorly photographed in 1992) have declined during the last
years of the 20th century to endangered status. Others, like the Réunion Olive White-eye (left), are still doing fine.