Common Bulbul
Pycnonotus barbatus
Rather nondescript thrush-sized brown bird with a darker face and throat. The belly is pallid and the undertail white (north part of range) or yellow (south part of range). Often in small flocks and not easily missed due to its noisy, repetitive, and powerful song. Also frequently makes harsh chattering calls. Present in many wooded habitats, absent only from dense forest or treeless desert. Often found in well-vegetated areas in dry landscapes such as gardens, orchards, and oases.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Pycnonotus barbatus
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Pycnonotidae
- Genus
- Pycnonotus
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds

Aceh Bulbul
Pycnonotus snouckaerti
Rare and declining endemic of Sumatra’s northwestern mountains. Large grayish-brown bulbul with a bright orange forehead patch, dark olive wings, and a weak crest that gives it a pointy-headed profile. Once regarded as a subspecies of the very similar Orange-spotted Bulbul, but note present species’ distribution and dark (not white) belly. Inhabits foothill and lower montane forests, where localized and largely restricted to clearings with a substantial understory. Calls are generally similar to those of Orange-spotted Bulbul, and include a bubbly chatter.

Ethiopian Cisticola
Cisticola lugubris
A relatively colorful, mid-sized, long-tailed cisticola. Note the gray-brown back with thick black streaks, the rufous on the wing and cap, and the whitish underparts. Tail is slightly longer in non-breeding plumage. Found in wetlands, moist grassland, and scrub. Similar to Stout Cisticola, but has a slimmer bill, longer tail, and brighter rufous wing panel. The vocalizations are quick bursts of rough calls, usually followed by the dry, trilling song.

Barred Buttonquail
Turnix suscitator
Tiny rotund, short-tailed bird, scarcely larger than a sparrow; like a diminutive partridge or quail but only distantly related. Brown with scaly streaking above, extensive black barring on the chest (more extensive on the female), and rich tawny flanks. Extremely difficult to detect, moving about invisibly in dense weedy vegetation in fields, forest edges, and farmland. Flying birds have whirring flight, show contrast between dark flight feathers and paler coverts. Courting females give sonorous, booming calls from dense vegetation.
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