I am ecstatic to spot Jungle Babblers frequent our gardens at Ibaadat! They come to sun themselves, perch on the Neem Tree and feed to their heart's content on the grains we lay out for them.
Here's what Wikipedia tells us about the Babbler bird -
"They are gregarious birds that forage in small groups of six to ten birds, a habit that has given them the popular name of "Seven Sisters" in urban Northern India,
It is a noisy bird, and the presence of a flock may generally be known at some distance by the harsh mewing calls, continual chattering, squeaking and chirping produced by its members.
Frank Finn notes an incident during the Colonial period in India:
Some years back, a new Viceroy was being shown the wonders of his temporary kingdom, and among these, the Taj at Agra held, of course, an important place. Arrived before the glorious monument of Eastern love and pride, the artless Aide-de-Camp was mute; the gilded staff was still as Kipling says, in anxious expectation of the comment of His Excellency. But this, alas when it came was merely the remark: "What are those funny little birds?" The shock must have been the greater for the fact that the mean fowls thus honoured were it seems, of that singularly disreputable species which is commonly known in India as the "Seven Sisters" or "Seven Brothers," or by the Hindustani equivalent of sat-bhai."
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