Babblers, what a funny name

Published on by bushboy

Don’t Hold Your Breaths Bird of the Week VIII

Grey-crowned Babblers live in family groups between four and twelve. The family that live on my place I have not see more than seven. When the feed on the ground, there is always a Babbler in a tree who will sound a warning if danger is approaching and the ones on the ground are in the trees in a flash. They are rather large birds. The Grey-crowned Babbler is the largest of the Babblers.

They are fun to watch as they patrol the bush, flicking over leaves and bits of bark with their curved bill looking for insects. As the walk along there is a constant babbling, a “chuck” sound that is the communication.

In the audio below, the first call is the alarm call and then everyone chats about the alarm call *from http://www.graemechapman.com.au/library/sounds

Grey-crowned Babblers really enjoy foraging in the Stringybark trees. They are able just to rip the bark from the trees with that curved bill. Babblers are quite good at hanging on vertically, ripping bark, chatting and finding insects.

Often another Babbler will join in when there appears to be a bounty to be had.

Unfortunately. Grey-crowned Babblers status in my state, New South Wales, is vulnerable so I am glad they have found my place to live. When I walked about my badly burnt property in 2019 making sure there weren’t any badly burnt animals that may need looking after. Thankfully I didn’t find any but found the Babblers.

33 thoughts on “Babblers, what a funny name”

      1. Wow, that is some frightening account Brian. I am sorry for your losses. Having never experienced such a huge fire I can only imagine what it’s like, but I remember hearing the news reports. I hope you never have to go through that again.

        Liked by 1 person

  11. Another great name, Brian. The video reminds me of the first time I looked up “grackles” while my husband and I were sitting on the back patio. When I played the sound, a grackle not far away got quite agitated, so I turned it off before it decided it dive bomb us. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.