Black-throated Laughingthrush

About the Black-throated Laughingthrush

The black-throated laughingthrush (Pterorhinus chinensis) is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, mostly at submontane to montane elevations.

The black-throated laughingthrush was described as Lanius (chinensis) by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1786 based on specimens from Guangzhou, China. The black-throated laughingthrush was historically placed in the wastebin genus Garrulax, although some authors also placed it in Dryonastes or Ianthocincla. Following the publication of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study in 2018, it was moved to the resurrected genus Pterorhinus.

Based on a combination of strong morphological and genetic evidence, the subspecies on Hainan Island is treated as a distinct species by some authors, Swinhoe's laughingthrush (Pterorhinus monachus). However, the degree of divergence between the two taxa is not very deep, with the two only having split 0.3–1.6 mya, and thus Swinhoe's laughingthrush continues to be considered a... Wikipedia →