Turdoides plebejus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Brown Babbler sighting in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 349th most-seen of the 434 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 Brown Babbler in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
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.
5th of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Brown Babbler sightings, Queen Elizabeth National Park ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 50%), Kidepo Valley National Park (Uganda, about 20%) and Murchison Falls National Park (Uganda, about 10%).
Same genus: Turdoides
The closest relatives of the Brown Babbler that you can see in Queen Elizabeth National Park (genus Turdoides, Turdoides Babblers) are Black-lored Babbler (about 30%) and Arrow-marked Babbler (about 20%), 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 Queen Elizabeth National Park (13 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
