brown capped babbler

Appearance

The brown-capped babbler is a smallish to medium-sized babbler, at 16 cm including its long tail. It is brown above and rich cinnamon below. It has a dark brown crown.

Brown-capped babblers have short dark bills. Their food is mainly insects. They can be difficult to observe in the dense vegetation they prefer, but like other babblers, these are noisy birds, and their characteristic calls are often the best indication that these birds are present.

Naming

Three subspecies found.
⤷ ''P. f. babaulti'' - low country dry zone
⤷ ''P. f. fuscocapillus'' - hill country
⤷ ''P. f. scotillum'' - low country wet zone

Distribution

The brown-capped babbler is an endemic resident breeding bird in Sri Lanka. Its habitat is forest undergrowth and thick scrub. This species, like most babblers, is not migratory, and has short rounded wings and a weak flight.

Habitat

This babbler builds its nest on the ground or in a hole, concealed in dense masses of foliage. The normal clutch is two or three eggs.

Cultural

In Sri Lanka, this bird is known as ''parandel-kurulla'' bird') or ''redi diang'' in Sinhala language. Brown-capped babbler appears in a 4 rupee Sri Lankan postal stamp,