Yellow-browed Oxylabes Crossleyia xanthophrys Scientific name definitions

15 cm; 15·5–22·5 g. A rather large terrestrial babbler-like warbler with short bill. Top of head is dark greenish olive-brown, contrasting with prominent long, broad yellow supercilium (kinked up behind eye), broad blackish-olive eyestripe; upperparts dull dark olive-green; upperwing olive-brown, primaries with light warm brown outer webs; tail dark olive-brown; cheek, throat and central underparts pale yellow, breast side, flanks, thighs and undertail-coverts suffused olive-brown; iris dark brown; bill pale pink or greyish-pink; legs pinkish-grey to dull grey. Sexes alike. Juvenile is duller and darker than adult, top of head more uniform with olive-brown upperparts, side of head olive-brown, short pale buff supercilium, diffuse buffish band across lower cheek, flight-feathers and rectrices edged greenish; pale dull yellow or yellowish-buff underparts suffused with olive-brown; upper mandible and tip of bill dark brown.

Rainforest of E Madagascar, from Tsaratanana Strict Reserve S to Andohahela National Park.

Moist ground and dense understorey of closed-canopy rainforest, at 1000–2300 m.

Apparently sedentary.

Diet consists of small insects. Forages actively, walking with rolling gait along ground, and probing in leaf litter and among herbs. Usually forages in pairs, or in family groups of 3–5 individuals together with Oxylabes madagascariensis, Newtonia amphichroa and some tetraka species.

Breeds Sept–Dec; juveniles observed Nov–Jan. Nest, built by both sexes, a deep cup, 6–8 cm in diameter, of interwoven grasses or bamboo leaves and moss, placed on bulky base of leaf litter or in dense liana tangle. Clutch 3 eggs; no information available on incubation and nestling periods.

Not globally threatened. Currently considered Near-threatened. Common. Recent research has shown this species to be more widely distributed and locally more common in primary E Madagascar evergreen forest than was previously thought. Occurs in montane forest with dense understorey in most protected rainforest areas in its range, including Tsaratanana Strict Nature Reserve, and Marojejy, Mantadia, Ranomafana, Andringitra and Andohahela National Parks; is common in each. Significant reduction or fragmentation of its habitat could nevertheless render it Vulnerable.