Little Brown Job

If ever a bird earned the birdwatcher’s shorthand LBJ — “little brown job” — the brown-cheeked fulvetta (Alcippe poioicephala) would be amongst the top reckoners. Grey-capped, brown-cheeked and buff below, with no bold mark to catch the eye, it’s the kind of small forest bird you look straight past.

But it more than makes up for plain looks with company and noise. Fulvettas move through the Western Ghats undergrowth in restless, chattering parties, keeping up a thin, constant contact call — and they’re often the heart of a mixed hunting flock, the busy little nucleus that warblers, flycatchers and others tag along behind.

Find the fulvettas and you’ve usually found the action.

This one paused on a mossy branch in the last of the evening light at Ganeshgudi, mouth open mid-call, just before the flock pulled it back into the green.