Jungle babbler

From Wild India

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Their Complex social lives

The Jungle Babbler has been described as "awkward and gawky." While it may lack apparent grace from a physical standpoint, these small birds form a complex and stable society.

In the forests, woods, ravines, and even private backyards of India, Pakistan, and Nepal, the Jungle Babbler lives its life in small groups, usually of less than twenty. Unlike the young of most species, babbler offspring stay with the group for at least eighteen months. Those who do leave at this time are generally female, with male birds staying up to four years (less if a prime male dies in a nearby group) before venturing out on their own.

There is one breeding pair per community; with the help of other group members, they build an open nest, where the female lays three to five eggs. Like most birds, Jungle Babblers don't use the nest for sleeping. Rather, the members of the community line up, side by side, on the twigs or branches of a tree. At the center sit the breeding pair; two nonbreeding males flank the entire group, one at each end of the line, with the fledglings squeezed into the middle of the row, where the older birds' bodies can provide warmth. As the young birds grow, they gradually assume roosting positions toward the outer end of the line, but the fledglings are never allowed at the flanks, bastions strictly reserved for second-year or adult males. The world of the Jungle Babbler is an enviable one, in which order is maintained by strong leadership and the bonds between members of the society.

(Above text taken from "The Lives of Birds: The Birds of the World and Their Behavior - by Lester L Short")