Dark-fronted Babbler

About the Dark-fronted Babbler

The dark-fronted babbler (Dumetia atriceps) is an Old World babbler found in the Western Ghats of India and the forests of Sri Lanka. They are small chestnut brown birds with a dark black cap, a whitish underside and pale yellow iris. They forage in flocks in the undergrowth of forests constantly making calls and uttering alarm calls when disturbed.

The dark-fronted babbler was formally described in 1839 by the English naturalist Thomas Jerdon under the binomial name Brachypteryx atriceps. He specified the range as Thrissur, Wadakkancherry, Coonoor and the Wayanad of southwest India. The type locality was restricted to Wayanad by Hugh Whistler in 1935. The dark-fronted babbler was formerly placed in the monotypic genus Rhopocichla. It was moved to Dumetia with the tawny-bellied babbler based on the results of a large molecular phylogenetic study published in 2019. The genus Dumetia was introduced in 1852 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth. The genus name is from Latin dumetum, dumeti meaning "thicket". The specific epithet atriceps combines the Latin ater meaning "black" with -ceps meaning "-capped" or "-headed".

Four subspecies are recognised: D. a. atriceps (Jerdon... Wikipedia →