Hartlaub's Babbler Turdoides hartlaubii Scientific name definitions

23–24 cm; 70–92 g. Medium-sized brownish-grey Turdoides babbler with pale scaling on head to mantle and throat, white rump, and short stout bill. Nominate race has crown and neck dark brown with greyish-white scaling, frostier white on blacker, blade-centred feathers of forehead; mantle to back dark brown with a few vague pale brown scales, lower rump whitish, upperwing and tail dark brown; lores blackish, superciliary area as crown but with fringes whiter, ear-coverts dark grey-brown with some buff flecking, cheek dark brown with pale greyish fringes; chin to breast mid-brown with vague dark shaft streaking, narrow white fringes, belly mid-brown with buffy-white edges (forming vague long streaks), thighs and vent buffy grey; underwing and axillaries cinnamon-buff; iris orange-red to crimson, often yellow inner ring; bill black; legs brownish-grey to dark brown. Sexes similar, female may be less brown on throat. Juvenile is much paler on throat and breast, paler generally and less boldly marked than adult, with dark iris. Race griseosquamata is paler and more olive-brown above than nominate, with paler and greyer feather fringes, paler below, with finer streaking on flanks, whiter belly and undertail-coverts.

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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.

Patches of dense scrub between woodland and drainage lines, fringes of Acacia polyacantha gallery woodland, riverine-forest edge, thickets on termitaria, gardens, marshy valleys with clumps of bushes and tall grass, sometimes reedbeds and papyrus swamps; to 1650 m in DRCongo, and occurring at 1550–2150 m in Tanzania.

Resident; in Botswana may extend S during rains.

Mainly invertebrates. Frequents middle and lower strata of vegetation, foraging mainly on ground in open. Found in pairs and in parties of 5–15 individuals (average 8), sometimes up to 20 together; often in mixed flocks with T. jardineii.

Very noisy. Chorus song a raucous high-pitched babbling “kwekwekwekwekwe­kwe…”, “cheeka-cheeka-cheeka-cheeka-…” or petulant nasal “papapapapapapapa…”, very similar to that of T. melanops but slightly higher-pitched, more pinched and nasal. ­Various harsh, shrill, nasal and often petulant-sounding calls, including “chaaa”, “chi­­­waaa­ya”, “cheeya”, “jik” and “jeeeyeee”.

Jul–Oct in Angola; bird in breeding condition in Feb in DRCongo; Mar in Tanzania, Apr–May and Oct–Feb in Zambia, and Apr, Aug, Oct and Dec in Botswana; Oct–May (peak Feb) in Zimbabwe. Breeds co-operatively within permanent territory. Nest an untidy bowl of coarse grasses, dry leaves and thin roots, with neat cup lined with fine roots and slender twigs, placed up to 3 m above ground in bush, low tree, tangle of flood debris, or among dense tufts of reeds and sedges. Clutch 2–4 eggs, deep greenish-blue to plain greyish-turquoise; no information on incubation period; nestlings fed by up to four adults, nestling period 18 days in one case. Brood parasitism by Levaillant’s Cuckoo (Clamator levaillantii) occurs.

Not globally threatened. Common in extreme SW Rwanda; abundant on Ruzizi Plain and along shores of L Tanganyika, in Burundi. Locally common in SW Tanzania; widespread in Zambia. Common in Angola. Common to very common in Okavango Basin and various NW river valleys in Botswana; common in Caprivi Strip, in Namibia.