Mountain Wren-Babbler Gypsophila crassa Scientific name definitions

14 cm. Pale-streaked dark chunky small babbler with dull white throat and dull rufous belly, bristly forecrown feathers projecting forwards. Has crown to lower back blackish with pale buff shaft streaks and dull ochre inner webs, latter becoming dominant posteriorly; dense, fluffy and elongate rump feathers dark brown, upperwing and tail dark brown; lores and supercilium dull whitish-grey (but dark brown spot in front of eye), extending over pale-streaked brown ear-coverts; dull buffy-grey submoustachial area, vague narrow dark malar line; chin to upper breast whitish, shading through vague pale grey on mid-breast to greyish-ochre with pale rufous streaking on lower breast and to increasingly browner and darker flanks and dark brown vent; iris reddish-brown to dark brown; upper mandible blackish, lower mandible paler with greyish base; legs horn to dark brown. Sexes similar. Juvenile apparently undescribed.

See G. brevicaudata. Monotypic.

Borneo.

Song a clear, rather shrill and thin steady piping , e.g. “hi-hi-hi’hu’hi”, “hi hi hi-hu-hi” or “hi-hi-hi’hu’hi-hu-hu” (notes 3–5 undulating), lasting 0·9–1 second and repeated every 1–3 seconds; sometimes shortened to 2 notes when excited. In song duet, one bird gives this song type, while other repeatedly utters descending “hii-hii-hiiu”. Calls with quick, stressed “whit” and “whik” notes, “whiti’chrrh”, etc.