Bulletin 346 - China 2019 #4 - Babblers, warbler, flycatcher

I had a brief trip to SW China and managed a few days birding. I was particularly interested in 2 critically endangered primates there, as well as a new bird species discovered about a decade ago.

Babbler is a name of small songbirds in at least 6 different bird families. The Timaliidae family has 55 species and they are called scimitar babblers or just babblers and include the Nonggang Babbler that we say in Bulletin 344. I saw 3 others in this family on the trip. 

The 8" Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler (Pomatorhinus ruficollis) is a beautiful bird. There are several subspecies including one without a streaked breast. This is the styani subspecies, the most colorful with the rufous breast with white stripes.

Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler

The 5" Grey-throated Babbler (Stachyris nigriceps) is a brown bodied bird with gray head and some white streaks.

Grey-throated Babbler

The last of this family is the 5" Pin-striped Tit-Babbler (Macronus gularis). It is a yellow breasted bird with brown back and wings, rufous cap, and thin breast streaks.

Pin-striped Tit-Babbler

The next family is Pellorneidae and contains fulvettas and ground babblers. Until about 2008 they were included in the above family.

The 5.5" Buff-breasted Babbler (Pellorneum tickelli) is small wren like brown bird with pink legs and a red eye.

Buff-breasted Babbler

The 5" Huet's Fulvetta (Alcippe hueti) I had photographed on my previous China trip. It is a brown bird with a gray hood and white eye ring.

Huet's Fulvetta

The 4.5" Yellow-bellied Warbler (Abroscopus superciliaris) is in the small (32 species) cettia bush warbler family. It is the second of this family I have photographed. It is olive above, yellow below with a gray head and bright white eye stripe.

Yellow-bellied Warbler

The last bird is an old world flycatcher. It is the beautiful 11" White-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus). This is a male with the blue black back and breast and rusty belly. The long tail is black and white. This bird has also been introduced into Hawaii.

White-rumped Shama - male

I put the different bird families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 5 of the 55 species of  scimitar babblers

I have photos of 2 of the 70 species of  fulvettas and ground babblers

I have photos of 2 of the 32 species of cettia bush warblers

I have photos of 36 of the 328 species of  Old World flycatchers

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2019 David McDonald

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