Background: Historically the babblers have been assigned to the family Timaliidae but several recent studies have attempted to rest the taxonomy of this diverse passerine assemblage on a more firm evolutionary footing. The result has been a major rearrangement of the group. A well-supported and comprehensive phylogeny for this widespread avian group is an important part of testing evolutionary and biogeographic hypotheses, especially in Asia where the babblers are a key component of many forest...