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Black-throated Wren-Babbler Turdinus atrigularis Scientific name definitions

Nigel Collar and Craig Robson
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 2007

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

18 cm; 61–71·5 g. Fairly large, dark, streaky babbler, with black face, throat and breast. Crown is dull buffy brown with narrow black scaling, upperparts brighter warm buffy ochre with heavy black streaking, uppertail-coverts dull rusty, upperwing and tail dark brown, former with paler and more rusty-brown fringes; lores and submoustachial stripe pale buff, ear-coverts, chin, submoustachial area, throat and upper breast black, mid-breast to belly pale buff with black scales, latter fading on plain buff lower belly, and becoming bright rusty on lower flanks, thighs and vent; iris reddish-brown to dark brown, bare skin behind eye pale blue; bill black, lower mandible grey, or horn at base; legs horn to dull pinkish-brown. Sexes similar. Juvenile more reddish-brown above, rusty buff below, with heavy blackish streaking and scaling on throat, breast and flanks.

Systematics History

Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

Borneo.

Habitat

Mainly primary lowland broadleaf evergreen forest, especially on river terraces, old secondary forest, logged forest (where much rarer), but extends into montane forest; generally in lowlands and lower slopes to 500 m, with individual records at 1150 m in Sabah and 1220 m in Sarawak.

Movement

Resident.

Diet and Foraging

No information on diet; presumably small invertebrates and some vegetable matter. Mainly terrestrial, searching leaf litter and flicking leaves aside with bill; also creeps about beneath tree roots and clings low down to bark of trees, not using tail for support, and investigates crevices by probing with bill. In groups of up to seven individuals.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Song, in duet by pair, a series of 8–10 long, loud, plaintive, slightly downslurred whistles, also a long series of up to 42 clear bell-like notes, starting more slowly, then delivered quite quickly, notes including “iuuh”, “iiew”, “iyuh” and “yuuh”, e.g. “iiew iiew iiew-iiew-iiew-iiew-iiew-iiew-iiew-iiew…”. In duet, one bird gives a series of this song type while other adds slightly descending “iuuh-iuh-iuh… iuuh-uh-uh”. Calls include “we-ah, we-ah, we-ah”, very deep and gruff, recalling Kenopia striata, and (possibly the same) a rather nasal, coarse “krav, krav”.

Breeding

Dec–May in Sabah. Probable nest in Nov (Sabah) was a big untidy cup of dead leaves with finer lining, placed less than 0·5 m up in diverging bases of ginger fronds; contained two young. Egg laid during capture was white with rufous splotches. No other information.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife NT Near Threatened
Not globally threatened. Currently considered Near-threatened. Uncommon in Sabah, where present in Danum Valley Conservation Area. Forest destruction in the Sundaic lowlands of Indonesian Borneo has been so extensive that it was predicted in 2000 that all primary formations would have disappeared by the year 2010, and situation is little different in Malaysian Borneo; the species’ preference for submontane forests, however, implies that it is not immediately at risk.
Distribution of the Black-throated Wren-Babbler - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Black-throated Wren-Babbler

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Collar, N. and C. Robson (2020). Black-throated Wren-Babbler (Turdinus atrigularis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.btwbab1.01
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