babbler sisters

The jungle babblers are called seven sisters as they are gregarious (social, group forming) in nature and always appear in groups of around 7 birds (6~10). They also display sentinel (guard) behaviour which usually involves one or two members from the babbler group keeping watch, up in the branches, while the rest of the group search for food in the safety of the bushes.  If there is any threat, the guard on the upper branch squeals out, which is passed down to the other members, and they all fly away.

jungle babbler turdoides striatus somervillei at lonar, maharashtra

Jungle babblers can be easily identified from a distance by the chit chat and playful squeaky noise they make. Watch out next time, they are almost everywhere in India.

Species: Turdoides striatus somervillei
English: Jungle Babbler; Hindi: Saat bhai; Malayalam: Poothankeeri, Kariyilappada
Location: Lonar, Buldhana, Maharashtra
Date: 21 Feb 2011

10 Responses

  1. Rudra Chattopadhyay says:

    I never knew of these birds until I went to Nagpur for my BTech. They were never before seen in hometown Pune but yesterday I heard them & saw slightly different variants from those in Nagpur. Maybe they came from the draught-hit Marathwada region.

  2. Ma nu Goswami says:

    As soon he was within earshot, I whispered “Tiger?” The question seemed to disgust the man. He shook his head. “No tiger… Babbler! Jungle Babbler… jungle mein aur bhi jaanwar hain…” Those were Raghav Meena’s first words and as he eased his considerable girth into a steel chair, I could make out from his demeanor that he was sick of pesky tourists and journalists coming and asking him about tigers. “Sab yehi poochchte hain… where is tiger? Where is tiger? Kal dekha tiger… gate ke pass… had to drive it back into the forest… like a cow. Earlier nothing was important. When we lost our tigers, the tigers became all important, but the forest needs every animal… tiger bhi… babbler bhi…” and his lone eye burned with a strange indignation, an intensity that seemed to transcend his dowdy appearance and apparently insignificant station in life.
    http://prashantobanerji.blogspot.com/2010/09/babblers.html

  3. sandeep says:

    seven sisters is an apt name isnt it. i also saw a group of them near thattekad recently. didnt count – but i am sure the group size was 7!

  4. Abhilash says:

    Ill keep watching for them. Nice to see your posts after a long time.

    • rocksea says:

      In kerala the “white headed babblers” are also there, which have a lighter shade for its crown – but the behavior and chattering are similar.

  5. Alakananda says:

    those seven sisters always make me nostalgic about lazy afternoons spent under shady mango trees back home… trying to take a nap and being pleasantly disturbed by their incessant chatter….

  6. RESTLESS says:

    Hi rocksea! how had u been?!

    You have tremendous interst in wild life!

    This was really intersting and the write up was really informative.

    Only thing that struck me was, u name them babbler ‘sisters’ and it seems the name in Hindi is ‘saat bhai’…… sibling thing ha!!

    take care and it’s always a pleasure to hear from you.

    RESTLESS

    • rocksea says:

      Hey restless, yes we are very much into wildlife and nature 🙂 They are popularly known in english as seven sisters, that is why I named them as babbler sisters. They are pretty much everywhere, and next time you see some commotion and squealing around some bushes, check out if they are the babbler sisters 😀

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