Chestnut-winged Babbler Cyanoderma erythropterum Scientific name definitions

A well-named species of South-East Asia’s Sunda region, the Chestnut-winged Babbler occurs from the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra (including a good number of its satellites, off both coasts), where it is typically found in pairs or small groups foraging low in the undergrowth of both primary and logged lowland and foothill evergreen forests. Visually, it is easily identified by its rich rufous-chestnut wings and mantle, gray head and breast, paler belly, and broad white orbital skin around the eye; when singing (and occasionally at other times), this species also displays a pale bright blue spot on its throat side! Vocally, Chestnut-winged Babbler is rather similar to a number of other species including the Rufous-fronted Babbler (Cyanoderma rufifrons), Golden Babbler (Cyanoderma chrysaeum), and the Macronus tit-babblers, and, if unseen, its separation from these requires some care.

Although long recognized as a single species, in recent years a considerable volume of evidence—spanning morphology, bioacoustics, and genetics—has spoken for the distinctiveness of the two Bornean taxa, which are now recognized as a separate species, Gray-hooded Babbler (Cyanoderma bicolor).