Dumetia hyperythra
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The tawny-bellied babbler (Dumetia hyperythra) also known in older Indian works as the rufous-bellied babbler is a small babbler that forages in small groups in low scrub forests. Like other members of the large Old World babbler family they are passerine birds characterised by soft fluffy plumage. There are three subspecies within the Indian subcontinent. The nominate hyperythra found in northern and eastern India is uniformly brown underneath while albogularis of the western Indian peninsula is white throated. The population in Sri Lanka, phillipsi, is also white throated but is paler underneath and has a larger bill.
The tawny-bellied babbler is a small babbler at 13 cm including its long round-tipped tail. The outer tail feathers are about half the length of the central tail feather. It is dark brown above and orange-buff below, with a rufous grey crown. The feathers on the forehead are stiff and the tail has cross rays and is otherwise olive brown. The throat is white in adults of the populations of peninsular India and Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan population, however, has a larger and heavier beak and paler underparts.
The population on Mt. Abu is white-throated... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 4 | Gir National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 6 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 10 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 11 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 12 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 13 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Lucknow | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Mumbai | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Bhubaneshwar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Jabalpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Kalyan-Dombivli | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Nagpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Bengaluru | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Mysuru | 🇮🇳 India |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Tawny-bellied Babbler sighting in Sinharaja Forest Reserve on a given day, based on 25 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 123rd most-seen of the 156 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.
May and June
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Tawny-bellied Babbler in Sinharaja Forest Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in July to April, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Tawny-bellied Babbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
13th of 13
Of the 13 parks where we can rate Tawny-bellied Babbler sightings, Sinharaja Forest Reserve ranks 13th at under 5%. The best odds are in Udawalawe National Park (Sri Lanka, about 40%), Bandhavgarh National Park (India, about 10%) and Yala National Park (Sri Lanka, about 10%).
Same family: Timaliidae
The closest relatives of the Tawny-bellied Babbler that you can see in Sinharaja Forest Reserve (family Timaliidae, Tree-Babblers, Scimitar-Babblers, and Allies) are Dark-fronted Babbler (about 40%) and Sri Lanka Scimitar-Babbler (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Tawny-bellied Babbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Sinharaja Forest Reserve (25 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.
