• June 2, 2025
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Vulnerable and Fast Declining – The Jerdon’s Babbler
The Jerdon’s Babbler is a warm brown Babbler with
a distinctive round-headed and short-billed
profile. Extremely localized, restricted to
disappearing patches of tall riverine grassland
and reedbeds. Usually in pairs or small groups.
Shy and skulking, typically best detected by its
fluty, melodic song, but if seen well, due to its
distinctive its grey face, pale throat, and golden
“spectacles”. This species is in a rapid decline
as a result of the extensive loss of tall, wet
grassland habitat, primarily owing to drainage,
conversion to cultivation and grazing by domestic
stock and has been listed as Vulnerable on the
IUCN Red List since 1994.
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The Jerdon’s Babbler is a small, long-tailed bird
of tall, seasonally inundated grassland habitats.
Typically identifiable by its graduated tail, and
greyish facial feathers and underparts, which
start out grey before transitioning to
buff-coloured near the belly. It measures between
16 to 17 cm in length and weighs about 24 to 28
gms. It presents a buffy chestnut brown plumage on
its upper parts and a slightly paler
yellowish-brown on its underparts. The lores,
throat, and breast are a pale greyish hue, while
the tail and a wing patch exhibit a more vivid
reddish tone. It has a long tail, which it uses
for balance, and its bill, which is thicker than
that of typical warblers but not as robust as that
of parrotbills. The bird’s legs and feet are dark,
and it has a greyish-horn coloured bill with a
paler underside. The eyes are yellowish-brown,
surrounded by a thin ring of greenish-yellow skin.
Both sexes are similar in appearance, with
juveniles displaying a more orange tint to their
upper plumage and a pinkish lower bill.
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The Jerdon’s Babbler is a specialist of tall, wet
grasslands in riparian floodplains, the three
subspecies of Jerdon’s Babbler occur across a
disjunct range in Pakistan, Nepal, India and
Myanmar, and may formerly have also occurred in
Bangladesh. It is a presumed resident, inhabiting
river floodplain tall grassland and reedbeds (2 to
4 mtrs high), often seasonally inundated or in
close proximity to rivers and pools. It prefers
dense, contiguous, undisturbed stands of grass and
generally avoids drier, semi-open, short grassland
habitat with scattered bushes. It is unobtrusive
and usually encountered in pairs or small groups.
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Typically, when foraging and not singing, tends to
remain hidden within the dense grassland at
mid-levels, only rarely coming close to the
ground. Occasionally, species may ascend to the
tops of grass stems in search of food, but more
commonly it is found on horizontal long leaves or
branches, where it obtains food. Diet includes
ants and small beetles, grasshoppers as well as
small seeds and vegetable matter. Tends to forage
in pairs or small parties in tall grass, moving
quickly and quietly through the grass stems.
Typically ascends or descends these stems or along
branches sideways, sometimes hanging almost
upside-down. When foraging, tends to obtain food
from the base of leaves and at bends in the middle
of the leaf blade. Will take hold of these leaves
and pull, or glean from the undersides of the leaf
blade.
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Its song is a weak 4 to 8-note warbling
chi-chi-chi-chew-chew-chew, tew-tew-tew-tew chew
or ih-ih-ih-ih chew chitit chew i’wwiuu, with a
drawn-out end note and sometimes starting with a
chatter of itch, itit or tchew. Birds sing usually
in the early morning and in the evening, perching
upright on a reed, with the head slightly elevated
“tsut-tsueet-tsueet-tsueweeet-tsweeeeeeeet-tsweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet”
or “tew-tew-tew-tewwww-tewwwwww,” where
each subsequent note is somewhat longer and also
somewhat lower in frequency than the previous one.
Calls include a short tic or tsik, sometimes
extended into a series ts-ts-tsik which may end in
a plaintive tew.



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Description Credit – Birds of the World (The
Cornell Lab), Oiseaux, Birda, Animalia, Birds of
India | Bird World, Bird Count India & Wiki.
image license
critique


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