Short-tailed Babbler
Pellorneum malaccense
Long-legged babbler with an almost nonexistent stump for a tail, found in primary and secondary evergreen lowland and foothill forest. Warm brown overall with paler underparts and a gray face with slightly moustached appearance. Upright stance and general profile make it seem almost pitta-like. Forages on or very close to the ground. Not as social as other forest babblers: typically encountered singly or in pairs. Calls are often dry and insect-like or mechanical. Song comprises a beginning phrase of dry chattering notes and a series of around half a dozen descending whistles.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Pellorneum malaccense
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Pellorneidae
- Genus
- Pellorneum
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds

White-thighed Hornbill
Bycanistes albotibialis
A large canopy hornbill with a distinct white-tipped tail, a broad white outerwing with white patches within the black forewing, a white belly and vent, and a pale bill. Often seen in the canopy and subcanopy of lowland forest feeding on fruit. Call is a harsh series of caws, “hyr hyr hyr,” with occasional longer wails. Most likely to be confused with Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill, but White-thighed Hornbill has white on the vent and rump and on the tail tip, giving its tail a black-banded appearance, and its bill is pale.

Reddish-winged Bare-eye
Phlegopsis erythroptera
Large, handsome antbird with a bare red eye-ring. Males are black with chestnut wing patches and have white scales above. Females are chestnut with white wingbars. Inhabits the understory of humid forests, but has also been recorded in white sand forests. Only forages at army-ant swarms. The song is a series of nasal descending whistles. Both sexes of the Black-spotted Bare-Eye have brown-olive wings and backs covered with large black spots.

Black-headed Heron
Ardea melanocephala
A large, grayish heron of drier habitats; note distinctly dark cap and nape contrasting with white throat. In flight the underwing is strongly contrasting black-and-white. The juvenile is duskier and duller. It walks slowly, hunting for small animals, and is often found far from water foraging in burnt grassland or open savanna, though it may also occasionally haunt a pond or quiet river bend. Juveniles resemble juvenile Gray Herons, but juvenile Black-headed Herons have slate-gray rather than yellow legs. Gray Heron also has uniformly gray (not black-and-white) underwings.
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