Turdoides


Turdoides is a genus of passerine birds in the laughingthrush family Leiothrichidae. The species are distributed across Africa and southern Asia and are typically fairly large, long-tailed birds which forage in noisy groups. The majority of species have drab brown or grey-brown plumage. Several species that were included in Turdoides in the past have been reassigned to Argya following a 2018 study that found multiple clades.
The genus Turdoides was introduced in 1826 by the German physician Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar specifically for the white-headed babbler. The name combines the thrush genus Turdus with the Ancient Greek -oidēs meaning "resembling".

Species

The genus contains the following 19 species:
ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
 Turdoides nipalensisSpiny babblerNepal
Turdoides atripennisCapuchin babblerAfrican tropical rainforest
Turdoides gilbertiWhite-throated mountain babblerCameroonian Highlands forests
Turdoides chapiniChapin's babblerwestern foothills of Albertine Rift montane forests
Turdoides rufocinctusRed-collared babblerAlbertine Rift montane forests
 Turdoides plebejusBrown babblernorthern sub-Saharan Africa
Turdoides leucopygiaWhite-rumped babblerHorn of Africa
 Turdoides hindeiHinde's babblerKenya
 Turdoides squamulataScaly babblerriverine and coastal Horn of Africa :

Tana, Jubba and Shebelle rivers
 Turdoides jardineiiArrow-marked babblercentral/southern sub-Saharan Africa
 Turdoides gymnogenysBare-cheeked babblerwestern Angola and northern Namibia
Turdoides leucocephalaWhite-headed babblereastern Sudan, western Ethiopia and Eritrea
 Turdoides reinwardtiiBlackcap babblerWest Africa to southern CAF
Turdoides tenbrosaDusky babblerwestern, eastern and southern South Sudan
and adjacent areas
 Turdoides bicolorSouthern pied babblerKalahari Basin
Turdoides hartlaubiiHartlaub's babblercentral-southern sub-Saharan Africa
 Turdoides sharpeiBlack-lored babblerLake Victoria basin
 Turdoides melanopsBlack-faced babblersouthern Angola, northern Namibia and Botswana
 Turdoides hypoleucaNorthern pied babblerKenya and Tanzania