Babblers

Alice Springs Fauna •

Alice Springs BirdsBabblers Black-faced Cuckooshrike Brown Falcon Channel-billed Cuckoo Crested Pigeon Galah Magpie-lark Musk Duck Port Lincoln Ringneck Rainbow Bee-eater Sacred Kingfisher Sanderling Spinifex Pigeon Singing Honeyeater Southern Boobook Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater Splendid Fairy-wren Spotted Dove Wedge-tailed Eagle Western Bowerbird Whistling Kite White-plumed Honeyeater Willie Wagtail Yellow-throated Miner

Among the four babbler species in Australia, visitors to Alice Springs are most likely to see the Grey-crowned Babbler (a medium size bird) and the White-browed Babbler (the smallest of the Australian babblers).

The babblers are communal birds, living in family groups. The offspring are often seen remaining with the family group, helping to build the nests and feeding the new young. The dome shaped nests are usually built in dense foliage, at least two to three metres up in a tree. They will build two nests, a brood nest and a roosting nest. They seen usually forage on the ground.

Grey-crowned Babbler

The Grey-crowned Babbler (Pomatostomus temporalis) is the largest of the four babbler species. With their long curved beak, dark brown-grey above, a distinctive grey crown, dark grey mask and whitish eyes, they are a conspicuous songbird. In the adult bird their eyes are pale yellow. The underparts of this species are variable from reddish to dark brown, chin and throat are white, and with a pale grey lower breast. It has short rounded wings, cinnamon brown colour wing patches and a long tail that is tipped white.

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Pomatostomidae
Genus: Pomatostomus
Species: P. temporalis
Binomial name: Pomatostomus temporalis

White-browed Babbler

Among the four babbler species, the White-browed Babbler (Pomatostomus superciliosus) is the smallest of the Australian babblers.

The White-browed Babblers are a dark brown-grey bird, with a distinct white brow and dark eye stripe. They have a white throat, a white tipped tail and relative to their body size, a long, pointed curved bill. Their tail is often held raised or fanned and is long and graduated, with a rounded tip.

For more information checkout our Birds > Australian Babblers

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Pomatostomidae
Genus: Pomatostomus
Species: Pomatostomus superciliosus

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