The orange-billed babbler (''Argya rufescens'') also known as Ceylon rufous babbler or Sri Lankan rufous babbler is a member of the family

Leiothrichidae The laughingthrushes are a family, Leiothrichidae, of Old World passerine birds. They are diverse in size and coloration. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The entire fam ...

. The orange-billed babbler is a resident breeding bird

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to Sri Lanka. In the past, it was considered to be a race of

jungle babbler The jungle babbler (''Argya striata'') is a member of the family Leiothrichidae found in the Indian subcontinent. Jungle babblers are gregarious birds that forage in small groups of six to ten birds, a habit that has given them the popular name ...

, ''Argya striatus''. Its habitat is rainforest, and it is seldom seen away from deep jungle. This

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, like most babblers, is not migratory, and has short rounded wings and a weak flight. Although its habitat is under threat, it occurs in all the forests of the wet zone, and is quite common at prime sites like

Kitulgala Kitulgala is a small town in the west of Sri Lanka. The Academy Award-winning ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' was filmed on the Kelani River near Kitulgala, although nothing remains now except the concrete foundations for the bridge. Kitulgala i ...

and Sinharaja. It builds its nest in a tree, concealed in dense masses of foliage. The normal clutch is two or three deep greenish blue eggs. These birds are plain orange brown below, and have a slightly darker shade above. The crown and nape are grey, and the bill is orange. The orange-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. It is usually the first sign that a

mixed-species feeding flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These are ...

, so characteristic of Asian wet forests, is in the vicinity. It feeds mainly on insects, but also eats jungle berries.

Taxonomy

The orange-billed babbler was formerly placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Turdoides ''Turdoides'' is a genus of passerine birds in the laughingthrush family Leiothrichidae. The species are distributed across Africa and southern Asia and are typically fairly large, long-tailed birds which forage in noisy groups. The majority of s ...

'' but following the publication of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study in 2018, it was moved to the resurrected genus ''

Argya ''Argya'' is a genus of passerine birds in the family Leiothrichidae. The species are distributed across Africa and southern Asia and are typically fairly large, long-tailed birds that forage in noisy groups. Members of this genus were formerly p ...

''.

In culture

In Sri Lanka, this bird is known as ''rathu demalichcha'' (translates to 'red babbler') in

Sinhala language Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also s ...

. This bird appears on a 10 rupee Sri Lankan postal stamp. Also this bird appears on the 100 Sri Lankan rupee bank note ( 2010 series).

References

* ''Birds of India'' by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, * ''A Field Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent'' by Kazmierczak and van Perlo, {{Taxonbar, from=Q2672779 Argya Birds of Sri Lanka Birds described in 1847 Taxa named by Edward Blyth Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN