Red-billed Scimitar Babbler

The red-billed scimitar babbler is a babbler of the family Timaliidae found in north-east India, Southeast Asia and adjacent parts of southern China. It has a long reddish-orange decurved bill, typical of scimitar babblers, a rather long white eyebrow and brown upperparts and tail. It is typically found between 300 and 2,400 m in subtropical or tropical moist lowland and montane forest, particularly favouring bamboo clumps and Fokienia-dominated forest (Wikipedia, general species account).

It feeds mainly on invertebrates but is also known to take nectar from flowers, and it is a frequent participant in mixed-species bird flocks, often associating with the white-hooded babbler. SoIB 2023 rates it a Moderate conservation priority, a resident forest bird with a Restricted range of about 14,000 km² and insufficient data on trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).