The Mourning Babbler occurs in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and nearby islands. At Krau in Pahang, a study often recorded it taking food from aerial dead leaves at heights above ground up to 2 m.
Its face is slaty grey, with a thin black line beside the white throat. The tail is very short and the back is dark olive-brown.
It hops near the forest floor while searching for beetles, small grasshoppers, ants, and other insects. Records describe it feeding alone or in pairs.
At Bukit Rengit in the Krau Wildlife Reserve, Pahang, a 20-month study from February 2014 to September 2015 often recorded this species foraging above ground to 2 m. It mainly used aerial dead leaves and picked food from nearby substrates by gleaning.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.