LAUGHINGTHRUSH

The 'Laughingthrushes' are the genus '''Garrulax''' of the large Old World babbler family of passerine birds. They occur in tropical Asia, with the greatest number of species occurring in the Himalaya and southern China.
These are rangy, medium-sized, floppy-tailed landbirds with soft fluffy plumage. These birds have strong legs and are quite terrestrial. This group is not strongly migratory, and most species have short rounded wings, and a weak flight.
A few, like Streaked Laughingthrush occur in fairly open habitats, but most are jungle species, difficult to observe in the dense vegetation they prefer.
Like other babblers, these are noisy birds, and the characteristic laughing calls are often the best indication that these birds are present. As with other babbler species, they frequently occur in groups of up to a dozen, and the rainforest species like Ashy-headed Laughingthrush often occur in the mixed feeding flocks typical of tropical Asian jungle.

Contents

Systematics

References

External links

Systematics

As with some other babblers, this genus has turned out to be highly polyphyletic. Rather than forming a natural evolutionary group of closest relatives, the laughingthrushes are spread about the entire babbler family. This is quite apparent by their diverse morphology and presence of several groups with distinct color patterns, but the rarity of several species and the sheer number of taxa have hitherto prevented a thorough revision. Before this paraphyly was realized to be as dramatic as it is, it was generally assumed that the laughingthrushes were a clade comprising several subgenera.
This has much confounded further research: most molecular phylogeny studies, for example, used only the White-crested Laughingthrush as an "example" of this "genus", because specimens were readily available. Morphological studies, on the other hand, had usually more material at their disposal, but these too were generally conducted under a false assumption of monophyly. Cibois (2003), analyzing mtDNA cytochrome ''b'' and 12S/16S rRNA data of a number of laughingthrushes, did establish however that there is no such thing as a "representative" laughingthrush. Consequently most of the work regarding the evolution of this assemblage needs to be reassessed or even entirely redone. Indeed, the taxon ''Garrulax'' would need to be restricted to the type species (Rufous-fronted Laughingthrush) and its closest relatives, but the species generally considered the most likely candidated have not been studied by Cibois (2003) or more recently (Pasquet ''et al.'' 2006).
Thus it could be said that, in a scientific sense, for the time being there is no such thing as a "laughingthrush".

Probably in a superspecies:

★ Black-hooded Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) milleti''

★
★ ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) milleti sweeti''

★ White-crested Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax leucolophus''

★
★ Sumatran Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax bicolor''
and

★ Variegated Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Leucodioptron) variegatus''

★ Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) erythrocephalus''
Close to Chinese Babax (''Babax lanceolatus'') and/or ''leucolophus'' superspecies

★ White-throated Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax albogularis''

★ White-browed Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes?) sannio''
Close to ''erythrocephalus'' superspecies and/or each other:

★ Scaly Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax(Trochalopteron) subunicolor''

★ Blue-winged Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) squamatus''

Close to at least one of ''Babax''-like group, ''leucolophus'' superspecies, Cutia (''Cutia nipalensis'', but see Pasquet ''et al.'' 2006) and Arrow-marked Babbler (''Turdoides jardineii'').

★ Spotted Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Ianthocincla) ocellatus''
Relationships unresolved, in present taxonomic sequence:

★ Ashy-headed Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax cinereifrons''

★ Sunda Laughingthrush or Grey-and-brown Laughingbird, ''Garrulax palliatus''

★ Rufous-fronted Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax rufifrons''

★ Masked Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax perspicillatus''

★ Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax monileger''

★ Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax pectoralis''

★ Black Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Melanocichla) lugubris''

★ Striated Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Grammatoptila) striatus''

★ White-necked Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) strepitans''

★ Grey Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) maesi''

★ Rufous-necked Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) ruficollis''


★ Chestnut-backed Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) nuchalis''

★ Black-throated Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) chinensis''

★ White-cheeked Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) vassali''

★ Yellow-throated Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) galbanus''

★ Blue-crowned Laughingthrush or Courtois's Laughingbird, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) courtoisi'' - recently split form ''D. galbanus''

★
★ Yunnan Blue-crowned Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) courtoisi simaoensis''

★ Wynaad Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) delesserti''

★ Rufous-vented Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) gularis''

★ Pere David's Laughingthrush or Plain Laughingbird, ''Garrulax (Ianthocincla) davidi''

★ Sukatschev's Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Ianthocincla) sukatschewi''

★ Moustached Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Ianthocincla) cineraceus''


★ Rufous-chinned Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Ianthocincla) rufogularis''

★ Barred Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Ianthocincla) lunulatus''

★ Biet's Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Ianthocincla) bieti''

★ Giant Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Ianthocincla) maximus''

★ Grey-sided Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) caerulatus''

★ Rusty Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Dryonastes) poecilorhynchus''

★ Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Rhinocichla) mitratus''

★ Spot-breasted Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Stactocichla/Leucodioptron) merulinus''

★ Hwamei, ''Garrulax(Leucodioptron) canorus''

★ Rufous-breasted Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) cachinnans''

★ Grey-breasted Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) jerdoni''

★ Streaked Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) lineatus''

★ Striped Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) virgatus''

★ Brown-capped Laughingthrush,''Garrulax (Ianthocincla/Trochalopteron) austeni''

★ Elliot's Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) elliotii''

★ Prince Henry's Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) henrici''

★ Black-faced Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) affinis''

★ White-whiskered Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) morrisonianus''

★ Golden-winged Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) ngoclinhensis''

★ Collared Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) yersini''

★ Red-winged Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) formosus''

★ Red-tailed Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Trochalopteron) milnei''

★ Chestnut-eared Laughingthrush, ''Garrulax (Ianthocincla) konkakinhensis''

References

★ 'Cibois', Alice (2003a): Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeny of Babblers (Timaliidae). ''Auk'' '120'(1): 1-20. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2003)120[0035:MDPOBT]2.0.CO;2 HTML fulltext without images

★ 'Pasquet', Eric; Bourdon, Estelle; Kalyakin, Mikhail V. & Cibois, Alice (2006). The fulvettas (''Alcippe''), Timaliidae, Aves): a polyphyletic group. ''Zoologica Scripta'' '35', 559–566. (HTML abstract)

★ 'Rasmussen', P. C. and Anderton, J. C. (2005) Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx edicions.

★ 'Bird Data Project' http://worldbirdinfo.net/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

External links

★ Laughingthrush videos on the Internet Bird Collection