Chestnut-crowned babbler
| Chestnut-crowned babbler | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Pomatostomidae |
| Genus: | Pomatostomus |
| Species: | P. ruficeps |
| Binomial name | |
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Pomatostomus ruficeps (Hartlaub, 1852) |
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The chestnut-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus ruficeps) is a medium-sized bird that is endemic to arid and semi-arid areas of south-eastern Australia. It is a member of the family Pomatostomidae, which comprises five species of Australo-Papuan babblers. All are boisterous and highly social, living in groups of up to 23 individuals that forage and breed communally. Other names include red-capped babbler, rufous-crowned babbler and chatterer.
Chestnut-crowned babblers are dark, brown-grey birds with a white throat and breast, white-tipped tail and a long, black, down-curved bill. Wings are short and rounded and the tail is long with a rounded tip. Diagnostic features include two white wing bars and a rich, chestnut crown highlighted by long, white eyebrows. The birds have dark brown eyes and grey legs, while the wings, back and flanks are brown-grey to mottled dusky on the mantle. The white of the throat and breast is well-defined and narrower than that of the similar, white-browed babbler (Pomatostomus superciliosus). Combined, these characteristics give the chestnut-crowned babbler a rather unusual appearance.
At 21–23 cm and approximately 50 g in weight, the chestnut-crowned babbler is noticeably smaller than the grey-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus temporalis). It also gives the appearance of being slimmer than other babbler species. Adults are sexually monomorphic. Immature birds are like the adults but duller, with a pale rufous eyebrow and chest, brown crown and whitish patch behind the eye.
Chestnut-crowned babblers are found in inland areas of south-eastern Australia, including parts of western New South Wales, south-western Queensland, eastern South Australia and north-western Victoria. Its distribution lies within the south-eastern Lake Eyre Basin and the western Murray-Darling Basin.
The species commonly inhabits mallee, mulga and belar woodlands that are drier and more open than those occupied by the white-browed babbler and Hall's babbler (Pomatostomus halli). Other habitats include acacia and cypress pine scrubs and woodlands, stony ground and sandhills, and lignum, saltbush and samphire.
Chestnut-crowned babblers are most readily sighted at Eulo Bore, Bowra Station and in Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, as well as along many outback roads including those between Quilpie and Windorah, and Bourke and Nyngan.
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Wikipedia