The short-tailed babbler (''Pellorneum malaccense'') is a species of bird in 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 ...

.It is found in Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand as well as the islands of

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

and Borneo (and some of the smaller surrounding islands). Its natural habitat is tropical moist lowland forests. The species is generally solitary, not joining larger mixed-species flocks, instead foraging as singles or pairs. They forage in the understory on the ground on a variety of insects including beetles, grasshoppers, and ants. Like other babblers they will use their foot to grasp food items, an unusual behaviour for passerine birds. The short-tailed babbler is locally common at a number of places within its range but is considered near-threatened due to the loss of lowland forest in its range. There are three subspecies: * ''P. m. malaccense'' (

Hartlaub Karel Johan Gustav Hartlaub (8 November 1814 – 29 November 1900) was a German physician and ornithologist. Hartlaub was born in Bremen, and studied at Bonn and Berlin before graduating in medicine at Göttingen. In 1840, he began to study and ...

, 1844) –

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...

and nearby islands,

and nearby islands, Natuna Islands * ''P. m. saturatum'' (Robinson & Kloss, 1920) – Bangka Belitung Islands, west and southwest Borneo * ''P. m. poliogene'' ( Strickland, 1849) – north and east Borneo

References

*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=Q863123 short-tailed babbler Birds of Malesia short-tailed babbler Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN