Fulvous Chatterer Argya fulva Scientific name definitions

25 cm; 46–70 g. Medium-sized sandy-brown featureless Argya babbler with whitish throat, blackish bill and longish graduated tail. Nominate race is rufescent-tinged sandy brown above, crown with fine dark streaks, upperparts with more diffuse dark streaks on mantle and back; lores to ear-coverts dusky greyish-brown, neck side greyish sandy-brown with diffuse dark streaks; chin whitish, throat, upper breast, flanks and vent bright sandy buff, with faint buff shaft streaks on upper breast; lower breast to belly creamy buff; iris brown to reddish-brown; bill greyish-black; legs olive-brown to yellowish-grey. Sexes similar, but male has a touch of yellow at base of bill. Juvenile is paler, more yellowish-buff above, than adult, with grey iris and no crown streaks. Race <em>maroccana</em> is slightly darker above than nominate, with sandy-rufous wash on breast and flanks, iris pale grey; buchanani has paler crown, slenderer bill; acaciae has greyish-brown crown, yellowish bill with dark tip.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Desert scrub, bush-studded dry grassland, thorny desert thickets, tree clumps in barren arid land, and dry riverbeds, keeping to lower parts of shady thorn trees such as Acacia, <em>Ziziphus</em> and Capparis, and Phoenix palm clumps and Tamarix in wadis and oases; depressions with Rhus tripartita; will use Eucalyptus plantations, introduced tobacco stands and thorn-brake fencing.

Invertebrates , small seeds, grain and berries (notably of Ziziphus and Salvadora), varying seasonally. Animal items include small beetles (Coleoptera) and grasshoppers (Orthoptera) as commonest prey, also caterpillars, flies (Diptera), ants (Formicidae) and termites (Isoptera), one stomach holding 6 beetles and 50 termites, another (juvenile) 7 large caterpillars. Becomes tame and bold if provisioned in desert camps, taking scraps of dough, dead moths and pieces of meat. Forages mainly on ground , probing with bill at earth or in bases of palm fronds near ground; seen to extract larvae from basal fleshy leaves and underground rootstock of awn grass (Aristida pungens), using feet and bill. Found in small parties of 4–5 individuals, sometimes up to twelve; mean of 33 flocks 5·7 (Sudan), of 83 flocks 5 (Morocco).

Varied, but chorus song unreported. Main contact call a series of 6–10 loud, clear, descending whistles lasting altogether 2–3 seconds, the first note longest, “peeeeooo, peeoo-peeoo-peeoo-peeoo-peeoo”. Other calls include shimmering metallic trill, “rirrrrrrrrrrr”, which rises and falls in pitch and intensity, possibly in mild alarm; a descending trill in distraction display; a high wavering tremolo by female on nest when fed by group-member; sharp “pwit” in high alarm; short twanging “pip” or “pee” in flight; quiet “cheep” while foraging.

Apr and Aug in Mauritania, and Jan–Jun and recently fledged juveniles in Sept and Nov in Morocco; Nov–Jul (mostly Mar–Apr) in Algeria, Mar–Jul in Tunisia, Feb in Libya and May–Oct in Mali; adults feeding young in Jun–Jul in Niger; Aug (wet-season breeder) in Chad; Nov and Jan–May (including Mar–Apr at Gebel Elba) in Sudan and Nov and Mar in Ethiopia. Co-operative, probably monogamous breeder, with helpers (immatures); at six nests in Sudan, five pairs had one such helper and the other had two. Nest a loose deep cup of thin twigs, long coarse dry grass, rushes and bulrush (Typha) leaves, sparsely lined, placed 1–2 m up in dense thorn bush (Ziziphus, Balanites), brushwood or palm crown, once in dense prickly side growth of date palm. Clutch 3–6 eggs , usually 4–5 (mean of 24 clutches in Algeria 4·3), greenish or turquoise-blue. No information on incubation and nestling periods. Fan-tailed Raven (Corvus rhipidurus) known to prey on nests.

Not globally threatened. Frequent and locally common in Morocco and adjacent Algeria, Tunisia and N Libya. Rare in Senegal, where possibly a recent colonist. Frequent in R Senegal valley, in Mauritania. Locally frequent in Niger. Frequent and widespread in Tibesti, in Chad. Common in middle latitudes E to Blue Nile, in Sudan. In Egypt, became extinct in Nile Valley following construction of Aswan High Dam in 1960s, but still common around Gebel Elba, on coastal Egyptian-Sudanese border.