Pomatorhinus erythrogenys
Silhouette: Jiekun He · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The rusty-cheeked scimitar babbler (Erythrogenys erythrogenys) is a passerine bird in the babbler family Timaliidae that is found in the Himalayas from northeast Pakistan to Bhutan. It was formerly considered as conspecific with the red-eyed scimitar babbler that is found in eastern Myanmar and northwestern Thailand.
The rusty-cheeked scimitar babbler was formally described in 1831 by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Vigors under the binomial name Pamatorhynus erythrogenys in John Gould's book "Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains". The description was accompanied by a hand coloured illustration drawn by Elizabeth Gould. In 1924 the type locality was restricted to "Shimla–Almora". The specific epithet combines the Ancient Greek ερυθρος/eruthros meaning "red" with γενυος/genuos meaning "cheek". The rusty-cheeked scimitar babbler is now one of seven scimitar babblers placed in the genus Erythrogenys. The species was formerly regarded as conspecific with the red-eyed scimitar babbler (Erythrogenys imberbis) that is found in eastern Myanmar and northwestern Thailand. The red-eyed scimitar babbler is now considered as a separate species based on the differences in morphology... Wikipedia →
Recording0:12
India · 2023
© dbeadle · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:10
India · 2026
© Kapish Garg · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:08
India · 2026
© GURSEWAK SINGH · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 3 | Langtang National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler sighting in Islamabad on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 94th most-seen of the 123 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler in Islamabad on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 3
Of the 3 cities where we can rate Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler sightings, Islamabad ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Kathmandu (Nepal, about 20%) and Dehradun (India, about 20%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler that you can see in Islamabad (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are House Crow (over 90%), House Sparrow (about 70%) and Oriental Magpie-Robin (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Islamabad (13 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.
