If I asked you to name the noisiest bird in our colony, you would without blinking, name the brown fat bird that comes in a group, hopping from garden to garden and creating a ruckus as if all hell’s breaking lose. And it does this every day, without fail.
The bird, as many of you know, is Jungle Babbler. Colloquially referred to as “Seven Sisters,” they stay in groups of five to 10. When I started with the hobby of birdwatching, I would characterize each bird through its expressions and Jungle Babbler looked like a curiously angry matron to me.
Everytime I look at their round white rimmed eyes, I still find them very curious yet angry. But in reality they aren’t angry birds. They are very perceptive and alert birds. Despite their bulky body, they rarely rest and continue to hop from one thicket to another, picking insects, seeds and occasionally hunting in a pack. I have seen the whole group take care of the young ones, like maasis and buas and tau and chachas in a large joint family. A whole flock keeps the juveniles safe, and in fact even feeds them.
Babblers are one of the first ones to raise an alarm when they sense danger. Other birds like Bulbuls, Robins, Tailor birds follow Babblers and then join their chorus. So, when you hear a bird commotion near your house, watch the direction of gaze of those cacophonous babblers and you are likely to spot either a cat, monkey or sometimes even a snake.
Hunting birds like Rufous Treepies, Owls or Shikras can also spook out the babblers and they give incessant alarm for these predators. I have once spotted a large Barn Owl in my backyard, by following the alarm of babblers. Barn Owl was resting in a tree but the babblers made its life hell. Some daring ones, even pecking at the sleepy owl, forced it to finally move its place and fly away. Cats also cannot tolerate these cacophonous babblers for a long time. Once my house cat got so miffed by their constant alarm and pecking, that in one fell swoop, it jumped on the flock and grabbed a babbler in its mouth. The whole flock went quiet after that. That’s the way nature works.
In warm winter sun, it’s not uncommon to see Jungle Babblers cozying up to each other and allopreening, a way of preening each other that appears as if they are nuzzling and kissing each other. That’s their bonding mechanism and it’s fun to watch their antics.
