The Indian scimitar babbler (''Pomatorhinus horsfieldii'') is an

Old World babbler The Old World babblers or Timaliidae, are a family (biology), family of mostly Old World passerine birds. They are rather diverse in size and coloration, but are characterised by soft, fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the g ...

. It is found in peninsular India in a range of forest habitats. They are most often detected by their distinctive calls, which include an antiphonal duet by a pair of birds. They are often hard to see as they forage through dense vegetation. The long, curved yellow,

scimitar A scimitar ( or ) is a single-edged sword with a convex curved blade of about 75 to 90 cm (30 to 36 inches) associated with Middle Eastern, South Asian, or North African cultures. A European term, ''scimitar'' does not refer to one specific swor ...

-shaped bills give them their name. It has been treated in the past as a subspecies of the

white-browed scimitar babbler The white-browed scimitar babbler (''Pomatorhinus schisticeps'') is a species of bird in the family Timaliidae. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are subtropical ...

which is found along the Himalayas but now separated into two species, the peninsular Indian species and the

Sri Lanka scimitar babbler The Sri Lanka scimitar babbler or Ceylon scimitar babbler (''Pomatorhinus melanurus'') is an Old World babbler. It is endemic to the island of Sri Lanka and was formerly treated as a subspecies of Indian scimitar babbler. The nominate form is fou ...

(''Pomatorhinus melanurus'').

Description

The most distinctive feature of this 22 cm long bird is the long down-curved yellow bill which is blackish at the base of the upper mandible. It has a striking head pattern, with a long white supercilium above a broad black band through the eye. The white throat and breast contrast with the dark greyish brown on the upperside and dark grey to black on most of the underside. The tail is broad, long and graduated. They have short, round wings and being weak fliers are rarely seen flying in the open. Indian scimitar-babblers have long down-curved yellow bills, used to work through the

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall, or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that has fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituen ...

and bark in search of their food which is mainly insects and berries. They can be difficult to observe in the dense vegetation they prefer, but like many other babblers, these are noisy birds, and the characteristic bubbling calls are often the best indication that these birds are present. The call itself consists of a loud fluty ''oop-pu-pu-pu'' followed immediately by a ''krukru''. The second note is produced by the female and the duet is accurately synchronized.

Leucistic Leucism () is a wide variety of conditions that result in partial loss of pigmentation in an animal—causing white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales, or cuticles, but not the eyes. It is occasionally spelled ''leu ...

plumages have been recorded.

Distribution

It is the only scimitar babbler in Peninsular India. This species is found south of a line between Rajasthan and Orissa.

Taxonomy and systematics

The Old World babblers are a large family of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s characterised by soft fluffy plumage. They are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in southeast

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. This species is very close to the Sri Lanka scimitar babbler which has in the past been treated as a subspecies. In the past, this species has been considered as a subspecies of the

(''Pomatorhinus schisticeps'') which is found along the Himalayan foothills. Molecular studies confirm this relatedness. There are several races that have been noted, race ''travancoreensis'' is found in the Western Ghats south of Goa and is darker (see

Gloger's rule Gloger's rule is an ecogeographical rule which states that within a species of endotherms, more heavily pigmented forms tend to be found in more humid environments, e.g. near the equator. It was named after the zoologist Constantin Wilhelm Lamb ...

). The nominate ''horsfieldii'' is found in the plains in the southern part of the peninsula. The race ''obscurus'' of the dry zone in the northwest (Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat; possibly Orissa) is lighter and greyer. Race ''maderaspatensis'' of the

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats is a mountain range that stretches along the East Coast of India, eastern coast of the Indian peninsula. Covering an area of , it traverses the states and union territories of India, states of Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Prade ...

is intermediate in plumage between the nominate form and ''obscurus''. Race ''maderaspatensis'' lacks the black base to the upper mandible and the bill is shorter. It has been recorded from the

Palkonda Hills Palkonda Hills are a range of hills that form a part of the Eastern Ghats in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Meaning "milk hills", they run along a northwest to southeast direction, culminating at the pilgrimage centre of Tirupati. ...

, Nallamalai Hills, Kurumbapatti and

Shevaroy Hills The Servarayan hills, with the anglicised name Shevaroy Hills, are a towering mountain range (1620 m) near the city of Salem, in Tamil Nadu state, southern India. The local Tamil name comes from a local deity, ''Servarayan''. Geography The Serv ...

. The Sri Lankan form that was considered as a subspecies, ''melanurus'', has been elevated to a full species by some works that note the geographic isolation and distinctive calls. The Sri Lankan form, however, responds to playback of the call of the Indian form.

Behaviour and ecology

The Indian scimitar babbler is a resident breeder (non- migratory) bird. Its habitat is forest and secondary growth mainly in the hilly regions. They feed on insects on the ground or on vegetation. Hopping on the ground, they may turn over leaves or probe in

for prey. They may sometimes join

mixed-species foraging flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock (birds), flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while fora ...

s. They breed from December to May. The nest is a large and loose globular mass of foliage concealed in a bush on the ground or low down. They usually lay three eggs (but varies from two to four) which are pure white in colour.

References

External links

Internet Bird Collection

State of India Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1318011

Indian scimitar babbler The Indian scimitar babbler (''Pomatorhinus horsfieldii'') is an Old World babbler. It is found in peninsular India in a range of forest habitats. They are most often detected by their distinctive calls, which include an antiphonal duet by a pair ...

Endemic birds of India