Stachyris nigriceps

Bukit Fraser, Malaysia

Another one on the Old World Babblers and this time the Grey-throated Babbler observed and photographed in beautiful Bukit Fraser. I have written about some of the various babblers, warblers, parrotbills, white-eyes, fulvettas, laughingthrushes and their allies from across Asia Pacific in numerous earlier blogs and also a collection of my babblers: Old World Babblers.

The Old World Babblers are a family of mostly Old World passerine birds rather diverse in size and coloration, characterised by soft fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The timaliids are one of two unrelated groups of birds known as babblers, the other being the Australasian babblers of the family Pomatostomidae (also known as pseudo-babblers). Morphological diversity is rather high; most species resemble warblers, jays or thrushes.

“This group is among those Old World bird families with the highest number of species still being discovered. ”

In an earlier blog I have included the genus of passerines known as Pnoepyga endemic to southern and south eastern Asia. The Pnoepyga contains five species with its members known as cupwings or wren-babblers and they have long been placed in the babbler family Timaliidae. But a 2009 study of the DNA of the families Timaliidae and the Old World warblers (Sylviidae) found no support for the placement of the genus in either family, prompting the authors to erect a new monogeneric family, the Pnoepygidae.

These are all part of the superfamily Sylvioidea, one of at least three major clades within the Passerida along with the Muscicapoidea and Passeroidea. It contains about 1300 species including the Old World warblers, Old World babblers, swallows, larks and bulbuls. Members of the clade are found worldwide, with fewer species present in the Americas. Some of the families within the Sylvioidea have been greatly redefined. In particular, the Old World warbler family Sylviidae and Old World babbler family Timaliidae were used as waste-bin taxa and included many species which have turned out not to be closely related. Several new families have been created and some species have been moved from one family to another - to the extent that when I took some of these photos I had different names for them to what they are currently named in this article.

The Babbler group:

• Sylviidae: sylviid babblers (34 species)

• Paradoxornithidae: parrotbills (37 species)

• Zosteropidae: white-eyes (141 species)

• Timaliidae: babblers, scimitar babblers (54 species)

• Pellorneidae: fulvettas, ground babblers (60 species)

• Alcippeidae: Alcippe fulvettas (10 species)

• Leiothrichidae: laughingthrushes and allies (133 species)

This list is an extract from the list of 25 families is based on the molecular phylogenetic study published by Silke Fregin and colleagues in 2012 and the revisions of the babbler group by Cai et al (2019) The family sequence and number of species is from the online list of world birds maintained by Frank Gill and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC).

Illustrated in this blog is a forest babbler of the Timaliidae - the Grey-throated Babbler. Read more about my Old world Babblers. 

Bukit Fraser

One of my favourite destinations in Malaysia. Bukit Fraser or Fraser's Hill is a hill resort located on the Titiwangsa Ridge in the Raub District of Pahang, Malaysia. It is about 100 km, about a two hour drive, from the capital Kuala Lumpur and 400 km away from Singapore in the south. Known locally as Bukit Fraser, this quaint holiday retreat is popular for its nature activities and cool weather. It is one of the last hill stations of Malaysia carrying an imprint of its former British colonial masters very similar to some of the well known hill stations (winter capitals) of India.

Fraser's Hill is mountainous terrain where the altitude ranges between 320 m (1,050 ft) and 1,460 m (4,790 ft) above sea level. Around 44% of the terrain area is ranked as steep, while flat areas make up 8% of the overall land area. Fraser's Hill's virgin forest coverage is around 92% of the overall land area, with only 1.5% of the area used for a town. 6.5% of the forest area has been cleared for secondary vegetation. Ten river systems in Malaysia originate in Fraser's Hill, including Sungai Selangor, a major water source for the district of Selangor, & Sungai Teranum, which forms a major river system in eastern Pahang. The geology of the area is granite, which forms sandy, permeable soil and is easily eroded.

Fraser’s Hill has its roots in the 1890s, when Scottish prospector Louis James Fraser opened up a tin mining community known as Pamah Lebar. Mining activity there was short lived as the tin ore depleted by 1913. This led many miners & farmers to abandon the area and Fraser reportedly disappeared in 1910, but research in 2019 concluded that he retired from his position and returned to Great Britain in 1910. He died in 1916 while travelling in Austria-Hungary. An attempt in 1917 by Charles James Ferguson-Davie, the then bishop of Singapore, to locate Fraser in the area failed. While he searched for Fraser, Ferguson -Davie recognized the area's potential as a suitable location to set up a hill station and provided his suggestions to the high commissioner and chief secretary of the Federated Malay States. Its cool climate made Pamah Lebar an ideal retreat to escape from the usually hot climate in Malaysia and construction began in October 1919 to convert the mine area into a resort. The site was renamed Fraser's Hill and opened to visitors in 1922 and the erstwhile location of Fraser’s tin mine became the location of its golf course.

Subsequent development occurred in the 1970s in response to increased tourism activity. While this provided room for more visitors, it had an impact on the environment including deforestation and water pollution prompting a halt to further developments in April 2010. More species faced extinction and the water pollution affected the lives of the Orang Asli (first people) and residents in nearby villages. These issues led to the Pahang state government ruling out further development in the virgin forest at Fraser's Hill on 13 April 2010.

Fraser's Hill is known for its vast biodiversity which attracts scientists & researchers. In recent years, it has seen an increase in tourist activities including hiking, cycling, golfing, archery, riding, tennis, swimming and squash. With its tiny population of 1,000, as recorded in 2013, it is one of Malaysia’s most unexpectedly satisfying short-stay destinations. Navigating up the tight twists and turns of the road to this hill station is a stimulating experience – in fact the uphill road is so narrow that the final eight kilometre stretch is limited to one-way traffic at any time. The direction changes every hour; odd hours are for ascending the hill, while even hours have been denoted for descending traffic. With a majority of its buildings featuring mock Tudor-style architecture, Fraser’s Hill hasn’t changed much from its days as a British colonial hill resort. Besides the essential photo stop opportunity at Fraser’s Clocktower, a hard-to-miss clock tower which stands in the old English village square, you can head on down to Allen’s Water, a former reservoir turned into a boating and fishing attraction.

Akin to a tiny Scottish hamlet, Fraser’s Hill is one of Malaysia’s premier locations for bird-watching. Avid bird watchers can take advantage of the fact that Fraser’s Hill is home to over 250 species of birds – the Fraser’s Hill Development Corporation and the World Wildlife Fund both run classes and excursions to see the flora and wildlife of the hill station. What's more, the Fraser’s Hill International Bird Race – a contest to document the vast variety of birdlife on the mountainside – is typically held here in June. There are eight nature walk trails available ranging from easy to hard. For example the Maxwell Trail – a short and easy hike or the six-kilometre Pine Tree Trail – a longer trail that takes one past some dramatic views and ends near the 18 foot Jeriau Waterfall located about five kilo metres from the town centre. Fraser’s also plays host to the Royal Fraser’s Hill Golf Course – a nine-hole green that is one of Malaysia’s oldest. There’s also a paddock at the eastern edge of the course where one can saddle up for a horse riding session.

Read about my other birds from this beautiful hill station. These are only a few of the huge number I have spotted and recorded there.

With that said lets move on to the photos of this gorgeous little babbler.

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Grey-throated Babbler

The Grey-throated Babbler (Stachyris nigriceps) is a species of passerine bird in the Old World babbler family Timaliidae. A medium-sized brown babbler with a streaked crown and an eye-catching white spot below the eye. It forages in forest undergrowth and dense scrub in edges and secondary growth, often with other species. It also frequently visits feeders set up near blinds. The song is a surprisingly high, shaking whistle and calls include dry chatter and buzzy, descending whistles. Found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam, its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.

The Old World babblers or Timaliidae are a family of mostly Old World passerine birds. They are rather diverse in size and coloration, but are characterised by soft fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The timaliids are one of two unrelated groups of birds known as babblers, the other being the Australasian babblers of the family Pomatostomidae (also known as pseudo-babblers).

Morphological diversity is rather high; most species resemble "warblers", jays or thrushes. This group is among those Old World bird families with the highest number of species still being discovered.

The grey-throated babbler was formally described in 1844 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth under the current binomial name Stachyris nigriceps. He specified the locality as Nepal. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek stakhus meaning "ear of wheat" and rhis, rhinos meaning "nostrils". The specific epithet nigriceps is from Latin niger meaning "black" and "-ceps" meaning "-headed".

Twelve subspecies are recognised:

• S. n. nigriceps Blyth, 1844 – central, east Himalayas

• S. n. coltarti Harington, 1913 – northeast India, north Myanmar and southwest China

• S. n. spadix Ripley, 1948 – east, south Assam (northeast India), east Bangladesh, south, southeast Myanmar and northwest, west Thailand

• S. n. yunnanensis La Touche, 1921 – east Myanmar, north Thailand and south China to north, central Indochina

• S. n. rileyi Chasen, 1936 – south Indochina

• S. n. dipora Oberholser, 1922 – north, central Malay Peninsula

• S. n. davisoni Sharpe, 1892 – south Malay Peninsula

• S. n. larvata (Bonaparte, 1850) – Sumatra and Lingga Island (east of central Sumatra)

• S. n. natunensis Hartert, EJO, 1894 – north Natuna Islands (northwest of Borneo)

• S. n. tionis Robinson & Kloss, 1927 – Tioman Island (off east Malay Peninsula)

• S. n. hartleyi Chasen, 1935 – montane west Borneo

• S. n. borneensis Sharpe, 1887 – montane north Borneo

These babblers are resident and are primarily found in primary and secondary evergreen broadleaf forest, low secondary scrub and bamboo-jungle in dense forest, clearings, and forest edges, undergrowth in tree plantations and old rice plantations. They occur at 150–2,000 m going up rarely to 2,500 m, in the Indian Subcontinent, but reaching 1,800 m in southeast Asia, 600–2,300 m in Sumatra and 600–2,200 m in Borneo. There is some possibility of local (presumably altitudinal) movements in India suggested by reports that the species is a winter visitor in Nameri (common) and Kaziranga (uncommon) National Parks, in Assam. But so far there is no clear evidence of this.

The grey-throated babbler feeds almost entirely on insects, including beetles (Coleoptera) and locustids with some berries, seeds and nectar. Outside the breeding season they are found in parties of 5–20 individuals, often in association with other babblers foraging in the understorey usually keeping close to the ground in low herbage. They search for food in big hanging rolled-up dead leaves and clumps of smaller dead leaves, areas of dead ferns, and dense epiphytes and climbers on tree trunks.

This is not a globally threatened species and is generally common throughout the range. They are local in Nepal, but frequent east of Kathmandu Valley, rarely venturing farther west. Common in central and eastern valleys and eastern foothills of Bhutan, and present in Thrumshingla National Park. Also fairly common in northeastern India, where they are present in e.g., Buxa Tiger Reserve (West Bengal), Barail Reserve Forest (Assam), Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary and Mouling National Park (Arunachal Pradesh), and Dampa Tiger Reserve (Mizoram). They are also common in southern China and generally common in their southeastern Asian range.

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