Yellow-eyed Babbler

Overview

The yellow-eyed babbler (Chrysomma sinense) is a passerine bird native to South and Southeast Asia. Despite its common name, it belongs to the family Paradoxornithidae rather than the Old World babblers. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List due to its wide distribution and stable population.

Identification

• Approximately 18 cm long with a short black bill and a long, graduated tail where central feathers are twice as long as the outer ones.
• Brown upperparts with cinnamon-coloured wings; the lores and supercilium are white, and the eye rim is orange-yellow in adults.
• Whitish buff underparts; sexes are indistinguishable in the field.
• Song consists of a strong whistling twee-twee-ta-whit-chu, often delivered from a prominent perch during the breeding season.

Habitat

Found across a range extending from Pakistan through India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Viet Nam and China. It inhabits grassy or thorny scrub in both dry and wet regions, as well as farmland, occurring mainly on plains but also in lower hills up to 1200 m. It is notably absent from the dense forest regions of the Western Ghats, occurring only on eastern edges or in gaps.

Diet

Feeds mainly on insects, often holding them down with their feet, but also consumes berries such as Lantana and Salvadora and nectar. Foraging is conducted inside bushes, where birds emerge to the top of a stem before diving back into cover.

Did you know?

In parts of northern India, the bird is known as gulab chashm, meaning 'yellow spectacles', and was sometimes kept as a cagebird.