Turdoides plebejus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The brown babbler (Turdoides plebejus) is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is predominantly found in West Africa, but ranging from the Gambia to Kenya. The species is common across its range. The species is also known as the Sudan babbler.
The brown babbler was described in 1828 by Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar from a specimen collected in the Kordofan Province of Sudan. He originally placed it in the bulbul genus Ixos. The species is closely related to and forms a superspecies with the white-headed babbler of eastern Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the arrow-marked babbler of central and southern Africa. The Old World babbler family Timaliidae has been the subject of much research and has been split by some taxonomic authorities. This move would place this species with the laughingthrushes in the family Leiothrichidae.
There are three recognised subspecies, the nominate race, platycirca and cincera. A fourth subspecies, uamensis, is synonymized with cincera. The brown babbler is a medium-sized Turdoides babbler, measuring 22–25 centimetres (8.7–9.8 in) in length and weighs around 52–80 grams (1.8–2.8 oz). The plumage... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 2 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 6 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 2 | Maiduguri | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 3 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 4 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 5 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 6 | Cotonou | 🇧🇯 Benin | |
| 7 | Lomé | 🇹🇬 Togo |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Brown Babbler sighting in Lomé on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 32nd most-seen of the 43 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Brown Babbler in Lomé on a given day, against under 5% in May–June and August–September, the lowest months. That is one of Lomé's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 180 mm in June. February, April, July and December have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Brown 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.
7th of 7
Of the 7 cities where we can rate Brown Babbler sightings, Lomé ranks 7th at about 10%. The best odds are in Accra (Ghana, about 30%), Maiduguri (Nigeria, about 30%) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso, about 30%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Brown Babbler that you can see in Lomé (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Common Bulbul (about 50%), Pied Crow (about 50%) and Variable Sunbird (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Brown Babbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Lomé (7 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.
