Yellow-billed Babbler

Description:

Very noisy, vocal birds that hop around the garden in groups, foraging for bugs and worms. They turn things over and search underneath, and pull dead leaves etc. off plants, making a real racket! The Yellow-billed Babbler or White-headed Babbler (Turdoides affinis) is an Old World babbler endemic to southern India and Sri Lanka. The Yellow-billed Babbler is a common resident breeding bird in Sri Lanka and southern India. The Yellow-billed Babbler lives in flocks of seven to ten or more. It is a noisy bird, and the presence of a flock may generally be known at some distance by the continual chattering, squeaking and chirping produced by its members. One member often perches high and acts as a sentinel while the remaining members of the flock forage on or close to the ground. They feeds mainly on insects, but also eat fruit, nectar and human food scrap. Birds wake up before dawn around 6 AM and begin foraging. They are relatively inactive in the hot hours of the day from 1330 to 1630. They assemble in groups around 1900 hrs and preen themselves before going to roost. Members of a group roost next to each other with some juveniles wedging themselves in the middle of the group.

Habitat:

Its habitat is scrub, cultivation and garden land.