The fulvous babbler (Argya fulva) is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is found in Africa in and on the northwestern and southern fringes of the Sahara Desert and the Sahel region, occurring in Algeria, Chad, Egypt (extreme southeast), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, and Tunisia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.

Description

It is 23–25cm long with a wingspan of 27–30.5cm. It is plain sandy brown above, with a whitish throat, and the rest of the underparts pale warm brown; the eye is dark, the bill greyish-black, and the legs pale brown.

Taxonomy

The fulvous babbler was formerly placed in the genus Turdoides but following the publication of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study in 2018, it was moved to the resurrected genus Argya.

Subspecies

Four subspecies are accepted:

• Argya fulva maroccana (Lynes, H, 1925) — southern Morocco, adjacent Algeria, and southwestern Libya

• Argya fulva fulva (Desfontaines, RL, 1789) — northern Algeria to Tunisia and northwestern Libya

• Argya fulva buchanani (Hartert, EJO, 1921) — southeastern Algeria and Mali to Niger and central Chad

• Argya fulva acaciae (Lichtenstein, MHC, 1823) — northern Chad and Sudan to northern Eritrea

Behaviour

Like other Argya babblers, it lives in flocks of typically 5–10 birds, which follow each other noisily with various churring and trilling sounds.

References

• Collar, N. J. & Robson, C. (2007). Family Timaliidae (Babblers) pp.70–291 in del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Christie, D.A. eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

• Snow, D. W. & Perrins, C. M. (1998). Birds of the Western Palearctic: Concise Edition, Vol. 2, Oxford University Press, Oxford.