Yellow-Bellied Prinia

(Prinia flaviventris)

Size: 13-15 cm

Area: Widespread resident over much of the North except the Himalayas

Habitat: Wet Areas especially Riverside Reedbeds and Scrubland

Description: A common sighting near the Riverbeds. Can be easily heard calling around the bushes and scrubs along the riverbeds.

The head is Ashy-Grey with a thin white supercilium. It has a Buffy-Brown back, White throat patch and Yellow belly.

A restless forager, always jumping around the bushes pausing only on the prominent bushes to sing. Always on the move, foraging in low vegetation.

There is no sexual dimorphism.

Yellow-Bellied Prinias are mostly found solitary or in pairs. But, on my last trips to the Sutlej Riverbed, I saw a group of 6 Yellow-Bellied Prinias in just a small patch of land.

Food: Being a pure Insectivorous Bird, a Yellow-Bellied Prinias diet is made up only of insects

Call: Since this bird is more commonly heard than seen, its call is an important feature to know to locate it easily. These birds have a variety of flute-like calls which include a chirp ending with a trill and is repeated multiple times, chink…chink…, or a plaintive twee…twee.

IUCN Status: LC – Least Concern

~Arjun Basandrai