Turdoides affinis
Silhouette: Jiekun He · PhyloPic
In 3 days >90%
The yellow-billed babbler (Argya affinis) is a member of the family Leiothrichidae endemic to southern India and Sri Lanka. The yellow-billed babbler is a common resident breeding bird in Sri Lanka and southern India. Its habitat is scrub, cultivation and garden land. This species, like most babblers, is not migratory, and has short rounded wings and a weak flight and is usually seen calling and foraging in groups. It is often mistaken for the jungle babbler, whose range overlaps in parts of southern India, although it has a distinctive call and tends to be found in more vegetated habitats. Its name is also confused with Turdoides leucocephala, which is also known as white-headed babbler.
The yellow-billed babbler was formerly placed in the genus Turdoides but following the publication of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study in 2018, it was moved to the resurrected genus Argya. These birds have grey brown upperparts, a grey throat and breast with some mottling, and a pale buff belly. The head and nape are grey, and the eyes are bluish white. The nominate race, found in southern India, has a whitish crown and nape, with a darker mantle. The rump... Wikipedia →
Recording0:23
India · 2025
© Krishnakumar S D · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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India · 2024
© brock · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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India · 2025
© Keertanaa K · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 3 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 4 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 7 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Horton Plains National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 9 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Eravikulam National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 11 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tiruppur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Madurai | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Tiruchirappalli | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Salem | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Chennai | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Visakhapatnam | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Hyderabad | 🇮🇳 India |
Very likely
About 70% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-billed Babbler sighting in Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] on a given day, based on 6,913 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 5th most-seen of the 204 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and August–September
In those months about 80% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-billed Babbler in Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] on a given day, against about 60% in December, the lowest month.
Between 3 and 6 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-billed Babbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
4th of 20
Of the 20 cities where we can rate Yellow-billed Babbler sightings, Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] ranks 4th at about 70%. The best odds are in Tiruppur (India, about 90%), Madurai (India, about 80%) and Coimbatore (India, about 70%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Yellow-billed Babbler that you can see in Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are House Crow (about 80%), Common Tailorbird (about 70%) and Black-hooded Oriole (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-billed Babbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] (6,913 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
