Turdoides reinwardtii
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The blackcap babbler (Turdoides reinwardtii) is a member of the family Leiothrichidae. The blackcap babbler is a common resident breeding bird in west Africa from Senegal to Cameroon. Its habitat is thick scrub and forest. This species, like most babblers, is not migratory, and has short rounded wings and a weak flight.
It builds its cup-shaped nest in a tree, concealed in dense masses of foliage. The normal clutch is two or three eggs. These birds have dark grey-brown upperparts. The head is brownish black with a white throat and conspicuous white eye ring. The underparts are white, mottled on the breast and with buff flanks.
The blackcap babbler lives in flocks of four to twelve or more, which help to raise the young communally. It is a noisy bird, and the presence of a flock may generally be known at some distance by the continual chattering, squeaking and chirping produced by its members. The main call is a cha-ka-ta. It feeds mainly on insects, but also eats fruit.
The binomial commemorates the botanist Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt. Birds of The Gambia by Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ISBN 1-873403-32-1 Collar, N. J. & Robson, C. 2007. Family Timaliidae (Babblers... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 2 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 3 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blackcap Babbler sighting in Ouagadougou on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 85th most-seen of the 86 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Blackcap Babbler in Ouagadougou on a given day, against under 5% in January, March–May, July and September–October, the lowest months. That is one of Ouagadougou's driest months, with almost no rain against 250 mm in August. February, August and November have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blackcap 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 Blackcap Babbler sightings, Ouagadougou ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Serrekunda (Gambia, about 30%) and Accra (Ghana, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blackcap Babbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Ouagadougou (5 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.
