Babblers: Timaliidae

Scientists have disagreed about what birds to include in this family. The group now includes birds having ten primary feathers (strong feathers at the tip of the wing), twelve retrices (RET-rihs-uhs), or tail feathers, and large, powerful legs and feet, which limit flight and restrict these birds to small foraging and nesting ranges. Babblers are diverse in coloring, size, habitat, and behavior. Though their colors are dull, some have vivid patterns. All of these birds have distinctive songs.

There are more than thirty tropical species; a dozen scimitar (SIH-muh-tur) babblers that have long curved bills, twenty wren-babblers, some parrotbills, and a few picathartes or rockfowl.