Tawny-bellied Babbler is a local and rather uncommon breeding resident inhabiting forests, scrublands, grasslands, adjoining well wooded home gardens and tea plantations from lowlands to about 1500 m elevations in the mid hills or even higher in some areas. Much common in the dry zone and avoids interior of the wet zone forests. It lives as small flocks, maintaining a large territory and skulking among bushes in grasslands/scrublands or undergrowth of the forest, moving one after other with squeaks of alarms and chattering or churring notes. It feeds mainly on insects and berries. The breeding season lasts from March to May and probably again from August to September. The nest is a ball of dry grasses, twigs and fibers with an entrance hole on the side, sets usually near ground in a bush, tussock of a Mana grass or the like, where it lays 3 or 4 eggs.
