Rhopocichla atriceps
Silhouette: Jiekun He · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The dark-fronted babbler (Dumetia atriceps) is an Old World babbler found in the Western Ghats of India and the forests of Sri Lanka. They are small chestnut brown birds with a dark black cap, a whitish underside and pale yellow iris. They forage in flocks in the undergrowth of forests constantly making calls and uttering alarm calls when disturbed.
The dark-fronted babbler was formally described in 1839 by the English naturalist Thomas Jerdon under the binomial name Brachypteryx atriceps. He specified the range as Thrissur, Wadakkancherry, Coonoor and the Wayanad of southwest India. The type locality was restricted to Wayanad by Hugh Whistler in 1935. The dark-fronted babbler was formerly placed in the monotypic genus Rhopocichla. It was moved to Dumetia with the tawny-bellied babbler based on the results of a large molecular phylogenetic study published in 2019. The genus Dumetia was introduced in 1852 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth. The genus name is from Latin dumetum, dumeti meaning "thicket". The specific epithet atriceps combines the Latin ater meaning "black" with -ceps meaning "-capped" or "-headed".
Four subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Horton Plains National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 3 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 6 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 7 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 8 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Dark-fronted Babbler sighting in Yala National Park on a given day, based on 21 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 177th most-seen of the 220 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Dark-fronted Babbler in Yala National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September to July, the lowest months. That is one of Yala National Park's driest months, with about 50 mm of rain against 340 mm in November.
Between 3 and 6 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Dark-fronted Babbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
6th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Dark-fronted Babbler sightings, Yala National Park ranks 6th at under 5%. The best odds are in Sinharaja Forest Reserve (Sri Lanka, about 40%), Horton Plains National Park (Sri Lanka, about 40%) and Periyar National Park (India, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Dark-fronted Babbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Yala National Park (21 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.
