Jungle Babbler

Key identifiable features

• General: Medium-sized, dusty brown babbler with a yellow bill, pale eye, and faint streaking on the throat and breast. Usually noticed as a chattering group moving through bushes or garden edges.
• Male vs Female: Sexes look very similar in plumage; males can be slightly larger but are hard to separate in the field.
• Juvenile: Young birds show a darker eye, warmer brown tones, and softer, fluffier plumage with less obvious mottling.

Movement & migration

A non-migratory species of the Indian subcontinent, living year-round in villages, gardens, scrub, and agricultural land. It moves in tight flocks, hopping on the ground and making short, weak flights between perches.

General information

Highly social and noisy, Jungle Babblers are famous for roaming in small parties, which has earned them the nickname ‘Seven Sisters’. They forage together for insects, small invertebrates, grains, and berries, often with one bird acting as a lookout. Their harsh, chatty calls are a regular background sound around homes and farms across much of South Asia.

Sourced from authorized ornithology references.

Audio recordings