BABBLER

also called Chatterer, any of more than 250 Old World songbirds of the family Timaliidae (order Passeriformes); they are treated by many authorities as a subfamily of the Muscicapidae (q.v.). Noted for their continual and rapid vocalizations, babblers are sometimes called babbling thrushes or chatterers. The name babbler is often used in compound form suggesting habitat, appearance, or behaviour: jungle babbler; rail-babbler; scimitar-babbler; song-babbler; tit-babbler; wren-babbler (qq.v.).