Brown-cheeked fulvetta

The brown-cheeked fulvetta (Alcippe poioicephala) is a babbler-like bird belonging to the family Alcippeidae found in the forests of South and Southeast Asia. It was formerly called the quaker babbler in India and common nun babbler in Malaya. They forage on trees for insects, sometimes hanging from the branches in a tit-like manner, and visiting flowers for nectar. They are often hard to see in vegetation but they have loud multi-note whistling calls in the morning and afternoon.

The brown-cheeked fulvetta is a small dull coloured bird measuring 15 cm from beak to tail tip. The grey bill is short and weak and the upper mandible is curved. The genus Alcippe has the bill widest at the nostrils which are long and has a membrane overhanging it. The tail feathers are all nearly of the same length. The wings are brownish, the underside is buff and the crown is grey. The crown is not demarcated from the rest of the head in the nominate subspecies but in some, there is a dark stripe that begins behind the eyes and meets at the nape. The sexes are indistinguishable and several birds may forage in a loose flock, sometimes joining mixed-species foraging flocks. While foraging, they are often tit-like, dangling below branches while searching for insect prey. Their calls especially during dawn are loud and can be mistaken for that of a magpie robin or puff-throated babbler.