Abbott`s Babbler (Malacocincla abbotti)
Order: PASSERIFORMES
Family: TIMALIIDAE Babblers
Scientific name: Malacocincla abbotti
English name: Abbott`s Babbler
Characteristic: "Size 19 cm. A small, strong black-billed and long-tailed bird; head all through uperpart brown, wings reddish brown; throat to breast white; underpart creamy; skiny eyering orange, and eyes bright yellow. "
Distribution: "Found from Pakistan to southern China, Myanmer, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam."
Habitat: "Open fields, scrb forest from the plain to 1,800 m altitude. In Sakaerat area, its preferred site is the grass fields among the dry dipterocarp forest. "
Habit: "In the breeding season, this babbler lives in pair, but in non-breeding time they keep in small flocks of 5 - 15 birds; may foraging in mixed-feeding flocks with other prinias amongst the high tussocks. Its diet consists of insects hiding along the stems and leaves of grasses; in addition, ti also takes nectar from some flowers. Usually it is hard to detect them among dense grass tussocks. Breeds in March to October, when it builds a deep cup-shaped nest of grass leaves, reed leaves and sedge leaves, and lined with soft and fine materials; the nest is always suspended between grass shoots in a tussock, about 50 - 150 cm above the ground; in which a clutch of 3 - 5 pinkish white eggs blotched all over with eddish colour is laid; both parent take part in building nest, incubaton and tending young."
Status: Uncomonly-seen resident bird in Sakeerat forest. Being legally a protected wild animal.
