The brown-capped babbler (''Pellorneum fuscocapillus'') is a member of the family

Pellorneidae 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 th ...

Distribution

The brown-capped babbler is an

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 elsew ...

resident breeding bird in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. Its habitat is forest undergrowth and thick scrub. 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.

Ecology

This babbler builds its nest on the ground or in a hole, concealed in dense masses of foliage. The normal clutch is two or three eggs.

Description

The brown-capped babbler is a smallish to medium-sized babbler, at including its long tail. It is brown above and rich cinnamon below. It has a dark brown crown. Brown-capped babblers have short dark bills. Their food is mainly insects. They can be difficult to observe in the dense vegetation they prefer, but like other babblers, these are noisy birds, and their characteristic calls are often the best indication that these birds are present.

Behavior

Brown-capped babblers are usually believed to occur in pairs. Male birds make a distinctive call ("pretty dear") to attract other birds. Breeding season occurs during the first half of the year, during which time males exhibit territorial behavior.

In culture

, this bird is known as ''parandel-kurulla'' (translates to 'dried-grass(colored) bird') or ''redi diang'' (

onomatopoeic Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...

in origin) in

Sinhala language Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan languages, 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 milli ...

. Brown-capped babbler appears in a 4

rupee Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

n postal stamp,

Subspecies

Three subspecies found. *''P. f. babaulti'' (T. Wells, 1919) - low country dry zone *''P. f. fuscocapillus'' (Blyth, 1849) - hill country *''P. f. scotillum'' (Blyth, 1849) - low country wet zone

References

* ''Birds of India'' by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, * ''A Field Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent'' by Kazmierczak and van Perlo, *Collar, N. J. & Robson, C. 2007. Family Timaliidae (Babblers) pp. 70 – 291 in; del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Christie, D.A. eds. ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

'', Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1302873

brown-capped babbler The brown-capped babbler (''Pellorneum fuscocapillus'') is a member of the family Pellorneidae. Distribution The brown-capped babbler is an endemic resident breeding bird in Sri Lanka. Its habitat is forest undergrowth and thick scrub. This speci ...

Endemic birds of Sri Lanka