Scimitar babbler

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Scimitar babbler
Pomatorhinus ruficollis.jpg
Taiwan scimitar babbler
Pomatorhinus musicus
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Superfamily: Sylvioidea
Family: Timaliidae
Groups included

The scimitar babblers are birds in the genera Pomatorhinus and Jabouilleia of the large Old World babbler family of passerines. These are birds of tropical Asia, with the greatest number of species occurring in hills of the Himalayas. [1]

Scimitar babblers are rangy, medium-sized, floppy-tailed land birds with soft fluffy plumage. They have strong legs and are quite terrestrial. This group is not strongly migratory, and most species have short rounded wings, and a weak flight.

Scimitar babblers have long, downward-curved bills, used to work through the leaf litter, which give the group its name. They are typically long tailed, dark brown above, and white or orange-brown below. Many have striking head patterns, with a broad black band through the eye, bordered with white above and below.

Most scimitar babblers are jungle species, difficult to observe in the dense vegetation they prefer, but like other babblers, these are noisy birds, and the characteristic bubbling calls are often the best indication that these birds are present. [2]

As with other babbler species, they frequently occur in groups of up to a dozen, and the rain forest species like Indian scimitar babbler often occur in the mixed feeding flocks typical of tropical Asian jungle.

The genera are:

Related Research Articles

Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. They are not closely related to the New World warblers. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxonomic confusion. Two families were split out initially, the cisticolas into Cisticolidae and the kinglets into Regulidae. In the past ten years they have been the subject of much research and many species are now placed into other families, including the Acrocephalidae, Cettiidae, Phylloscopidae, and Megaluridae. In addition some species have been moved into existing families or have not yet had their placement fully resolved. A smaller number of warblers, together with some babblers formerly placed in the family Timaliidae and the parrotbills, are retained in a much smaller family Sylviidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old World babbler</span> Family of birds

The Old World babblers or Timaliidae, are a family of mostly Old World passerine birds. They are rather diverse in size and coloration, but are characterised by soft, fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The timaliids are one of two unrelated groups of birds known as babblers, the other being the Australasian babblers of the family Pomatostomidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-eye</span> Family of birds

The white-eyes are a family, Zosteropidae, of small passerine birds native to tropical, subtropical and temperate Sub-Saharan Africa, southern and eastern Asia, and Australasia. White-eyes inhabit most tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, the western Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Guinea. Discounting some widespread members of the genus Zosterops, most species are endemic to single islands or archipelagos. The silvereye, Zosterops lateralis, naturally colonised New Zealand, where it is known as the "wax-eye" or tauhou ("stranger"), from 1855. The silvereye has also been introduced to the Society Islands in French Polynesia, while the Japanese white-eye has been introduced to Hawaii.

<i>Pomatorhinus</i> Genus of birds

Pomatorhinus is a genus of scimitar babblers, jungle birds with long downcurved bills. These are birds of tropical Asia, with the greatest number of species occurring in hills of the Himalayas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian scimitar babbler</span> Species of bird

The Indian scimitar babbler is an Old World babbler. It is found in peninsular India in a range of forest habitats. They are most often detected by their distinctive calls, which include an antiphonal duet by a pair of birds. They are often hard to see as they forage through dense vegetation. The long, curved yellow, scimitar-shaped bills give them their name. It has been treated in the past as a subspecies of the white-browed scimitar babbler which is found along the Himalayas but now separated into two species, the peninsular Indian species and the Sri Lanka scimitar babbler.

The Naung Mung scimitar babbler is a bird in the family Pellorneidae, described as new to science in 2005. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the closely related short-tailed scimitar babbler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Passerida</span> Clade of birds

Passerida is, under the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, one of two parvorders contained within the suborder Passeri. While more recent research suggests that its sister parvorder, Corvida, is not a monophyletic grouping, the Passerida as a distinct clade are widely accepted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bare-headed laughingthrush</span> Species of bird endemic to Borneo

The bare-headed laughingthrush is a species of bird in the Old World babbler family Timaliidae. It is endemic to highland forests at elevations of 750–1,800 m (2,460–5,910 ft) in the mountain ranges of north-central Borneo, along with some outlying peaks. It is 25–26 cm (9.8–10.2 in) long, with both sexes similar in appearance. The head is brownish to greenish yellow and featherless. The area along the lower mandible has a bluish tinge. The rest of the body is dull blackish-brown tinged with grey. Juveniles have more feathers on the head, extending from the forehead to the crown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Javan scimitar babbler</span> Species of bird

The Javan scimitar babbler is a species of bird in the family Timaliidae. It is endemic to Java, Indonesia. The Sunda scimitar babbler, which is found in Sumatra, Borneo, and Malaysia, was formerly considered conspecific, with both species being grouped as the chestnut-backed scimitar babbler. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red-billed scimitar babbler</span> Species of bird

The Red-billed Scimitar-Babbler is a species of bird in the family Timaliidae. It is found in Northeast India, Southeast Asia and adjacent parts of southern China. It has a long reddish-orange decurved bill that is typical of Scimitar-Babblers, a rather long white supercilium, and brown upperparts and tail. Sexes are similar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streak-breasted scimitar babbler</span> Species of bird

The streak-breasted scimitar babbler is a species of bird in the family Timaliidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nogmung</span> Town in Kachin State, Myanmar

Nogmung ; sometimes Naung Mung or Naun Mong and combinations) is the northernmost town in Myanmar, located in Kachin State with about 1000 inhabitants as of 2006. It is the last town encountered when hiking northwards to Hkakaborazi National Park and the highest peak of Myanmar, Mt. Hkakabo Razi. Nogmung is also the gateway for Tahaundam, the northernmost village of Myanmar. Nogmung is famous for its bird diversity, and many endemic species are postulated to exist there.

Hkakaborazi National Park is a national park in northern Myanmar with an area of 1,472 sq mi (3,810 km2). It was established in 1998. It surrounds Hkakabo Razi, the highest mountain in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pellorneidae</span> Family of birds

The jungle babblers are a family, Pellorneidae, of mostly Old World passerine birds belonging to the superfamily Sylvioidea. They are quite diverse in size and coloration, and usually characterised by soft, fluffy plumage and a tail on average the length of their body, or longer. These birds are found in tropical zones, with the greatest biodiversity in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunda scimitar babbler</span> Species of bird

The Sunda scimitar babbler is a species of bird in the family Timaliidae. It is endemic to Sumatra, Borneo, and Malaysia. The Sunda scimitar babbler and the Javan scimitar babbler being grouped as the chestnut-backed scimitar babbler. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.

References

  1. Rappole, John H.; Renner, Swen C.; Shwe, Nay Myo; Sweet, Paul R. (2005). "A New Species of Scimitar-Babbler (Timaliidae: Jabouilleia) from the Sub-Himalayan Region of Myanmar (Une Nouvelle Espèce de Jabouilleia (Timaliidae) dans la Région sub-Himalayenne de la Birmanie". The Auk. 122 (4): 1064–1069. doi:10.1093/auk/122.4.1064. ISSN   0004-8038. JSTOR   4090512.
  2. Duan, Yubao; Li, Yuan; Luo, Xu (2019-01-02). "Next-generation sequencing yields the mitochondrial genome of black-streaked Scimitar Babbler Pomatorhinus gravivox (Passeriformes: Timaliidae)". Mitochondrial DNA Part B. 4 (1): 998–999. doi: 10.1080/23802359.2019.1579062 .