| Tawny-bellied Babbler | |
|---|---|
| At Sindhrot in the Vadodara District of Gujarat, India | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Timaliidae |
| Genus: | Dumetia Blyth, 1852 |
| Species: | D. hyperythra |
| Binomial name | |
| Dumetia hyperythra (Franklin, 1831) |
|
The Tawny-bellied Babbler, Dumetia hyperythra is an Old World babbler. The Old World babblers are a large family of Old World passerine birds characterised by soft fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in southeast Asia.
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The Tawny-bellied Babbler is a small babbler at 13 cm including its long tail. It is dark brown above and orange-buff below, with a rufous grey crown. Three of the four races have white throats, but D. h. hyperythra of east India has the throat concolorous with its underparts.
The babbler is a resident breeding bird in India, Sri Lanka and southwest Nepal. Its habitat is scrub and tall grassland.
The babbler builds its nest in a bush, concealed in dense masses of foliage. The normal clutch is three or four eggs. Like most babblers, it is not migratory, and has short rounded wings and a weak flight. It feeds mainly on insects and nectar.