Yellow-eyed Babbler Chrysomma sinense Scientific name definitions

18–23 cm; 20–24 g. Long-tailed babbler, brown above and creamy below, with short black bill having culmen ridge strongly decurved. Nominate subspecies has crown, ear-coverts and upperparts and tail rufous-brown, upperwing brighter; lores to above eye and extending to nares white; cheek, chin, throat and upper breast white, becoming creamy buff on lower breast, belly and flanks and brownish-buff on lower belly and vent; iris yellow to orange-yellow, orbital skin yellow to orange-yellow; bill black; legs deep orange-yellow or ochraceous yellow. Sexes similar. Juvenile has darker eyes, brownish lores, less obvious eyering, creamier lower underparts, paler wings and shorter tail. Subspecies differ mainly in plumage coloration, nominate being less white than others on breast and belly: nasale is stouter-billed, shorter-tailed and less rufous-tinged above; hypoleucum is more sandy-brown with gray tone above, more rufescent on wings, only slightly buff-washed below; saturatius is darker brown with no rufous tones above, and slightly slaty-tinged brown on crown.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Geographical variation clinal, from palest in west (subspecies hypoleucum) to darkest in east (nominate), merging through middle of Indian subcontinent; birds from Nepal appear intermediate. Four subspecies recognized.

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.

Scrub , secondary growth, thorn-jungle, tamarisks, brushwood, scrub-covered eroded ravines, edges of cultivation, reedbeds, dry riverbed vegetation, bamboo, cane fields, wet rice fields, open grassland, tall coarse grass, high grass, swamps, fernlands, transitional habitats; enters gardens. Lowlands to 1500 m, to 1830 m in Sri Lanka and Thailand; 500–900 m in Laos.

Caterpillars , grasshoppers (Orthoptera) and other insects, also spiders (Araneae); also berries (Lantana, Salvadora persica), nectar (Erythrina, Salmalia). In pairs; after breeding season in small parties of 5–15 individuals, often in association with various species of prinia (Prinia). Clings to twigs and reed stems sideways or upside-down in manner of a tit (Paridae). Clambers to exposed reedtops to call, before diving into cover; seldom descends to ground.

Song consists of variable clear high phrases, “wi-wu-chiu”, “wi-wu’chrieu”, “wi-wu-wi’tchu-it”, “wi-wi-chu” and “wi-tchwi-wi-tchiwi”, jolly, musical, quick and complex, repeated after fairly short intervals; transcribed also as “tit-tóówhee-twít­chóó”, often mixed with rising trills and harsh or nasal calls, with a simpler “chyewchéép-chéép-chéép-chéépchit”. Calls include dry, reedy, clattery trilling, “chrr-chrr-chrr…” and “chr’r’r’r’r’r”; falling nasal “sttyeww”, which is sometimes appended to trilling call; and subdued “stik”.

Season Mar–Nov in most of range; Nov–Jul (mainly Feb–May) in Sri Lanka. Nest, built by both sexes, described as a small, compact, cone-shaped deep cup, made of coarse grasses, fibrous bark strips, dry plant fibers and bamboo leaves, plastered with spider web and seed down, sometimes lichen, lined with fine grasses, grass roots, grass seedheads and stalks, roots and horse hair, suspended between upright stems of reeds, grasses, sugar cane or monsoon plants or wedged in upright fork of small tree, shrub or bush, 0.5–2.1 m above ground. Clutch 3–5 eggs (usually 4–5 in India, 3 in S India and Sri Lanka), pinkish-white, either thickly and finely mottled and streaked all over with brick-red, or rather sparingly but boldly blotched with irregular patches and lines of bright blood-red or brick-red and usually some pale purple blotches or clouds; incubation by both sexes, no information on duration; nestlings fed by both parents, fledging after 12–13 days.

Not globally threatened. Uncommon and local in Pakistan. Local to fairly common in Nepal, where present in Royal Chitwan National Park. Widespread and locally common in India, where common in Kalesar Wildlife Sanctuary (in Haryana), present (“seen quite regularly”) in Rajaji National Park and common in Dudhwa National Park (both Uttar Pradesh), occasional in the New Forest campus at Dehra Dun and fairly common in Dehra Dun valley, present in Buxa Tiger Reserve (West Bengal), occasionally recorded in Kaziranga National Park (Assam), and present in Mudumalai National Park (Tamil Nadu). Widespread but local in Sri Lanka. Rare in Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary, in Bangladesh. Locally common in China, where recently recorded in Nonghua, Gulongshan and Diding Nature Reserves, in Guangxi; very common in Yunnan. Generally common in Southeast Asian range: seemingly localized in Indochina, where present in Pu Mat Nature Reserve and uncommon in Nam Bai Cat Tien National Park (Vietnam), and in Phou Dendin and Nakai-Nam Theun National Biodiversity Conservation Areas (Laos); widespread and common in Thailand, although only locally common in Khao Yai National Park.