The chestnut-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus ruficeps) is a medium-sized bird that is endemic to arid and semi-arid areas of south-eastern Australia.

[3][4] Chestnut-crowned babblers are dark, brown-grey birds with a white throat and breast, white-tipped tail and a long, black, down-curved bill.

[5] The birds have dark brown eyes and grey legs, while the wings, back and flanks are brown-grey to mottled dusky on the mantle.

Immature birds are like the adults but duller, with a pale rufous eyebrow and chest, brown crown and whitish patch behind the eye.

[9] Other habitats include acacia and cypress pine scrubs and woodlands, stony ground and sandhills, and lignum, saltbush and samphire.

[6] Chestnut-crowned babblers are most readily sighted at Eulo Bore, Bowra Station and in Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, as well as along many outback roads including those between Quilpie and Windorah, and Bourke and Nyngan.

During the non-breeding season (December - June), chestnut-crowned babblers form cohesive social groups of 3 to 23 individuals that maintain a territory, roost and forage together.

They rummage and probe in ground litter and bark crevices, looking for insects and their larvae, spiders, small amphibians, crustaceans and reptiles, as well as fruits and seeds.

[3] Most of the day is spent foraging and this often occurs within drainage zones, which are thought to offer greater cover from predators and a higher abundance of prey.

[6] There is constant chattering among members of the group, including whistling calls intermixed with tchak-tchak-tchak, which becomes louder and more frequent when excited, quarrelling or alarmed.

Classic ideas of ecological or demographic constraints on offspring dispersal and breeding appear to be limited in their application to the chestnut-crowned babbler,[15] nor is there any evidence to suggest that signal-based factors are important.

[15] However, it has now been established that kin selection plays the most significant role in the maintenance of cooperative breeding in this species, regardless of the apparent importance of living in large groups.

[14] Chestnut-crowned babblers are plural breeders, with most social groups disbanding into multiple breeding units whose members associate with a single nest.

It is probable that females suffer higher mortality rates due to either the risks associated with dispersal or the physiological cost of breeding.