Palani Laughingthrush (Montecincla fairbanki) | Photos and ID

NTNear ThreatenedEndemicInvertebrates

ForestCup nestSmall · 46 g

Palani Laughingthrush (Montecincla fairbanki), photo 2 — Photo: (c) sunnyjosef, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Palani Laughingthrush (Montecincla fairbanki), photo 3 — Photo: (c) Paulmathi Vinod, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Palani Laughingthrush (Montecincla fairbanki), photo 4 — Photo: (c) Navaneeth Sini George, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Palani Laughingthrush (Montecincla fairbanki), photo 5 — Photo: (c) Navaneeth Sini George, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Palani Laughingthrush (Montecincla fairbanki), photo 6 — Photo: (c) Nathan Ruser, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Palani Laughingthrush (Montecincla fairbanki), photo 7 — Photo: (c) Aditya Rao, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Palani Laughingthrush (Montecincla fairbanki), photo 8 — Photo: (c) sunnyjosef, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Palani Laughingthrush (Montecincla fairbanki), photo 9 — Photo: (c) Renjith Jacob Mathews, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

ID tip

This species has a dark grey-brown crown and narrow dark grey eyestripe with a broad white supercilium above it. This supercilium extends behind the eye in this species but stops above the eye in the closely related meridionalis. The throat is distinctly grey unlike in the black-chinned laughingthrushes found north of the Palghat Gap and continues into the upper breast. The grey of the upper breast is faintly streaked in brown. The lower breast and belly is rusty brown and the upper parts are olive brown. The bill is browner and not as dark grey as in the black-chinned.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Palani Laughingthrush

One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 9 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is February, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Palani Laughingthrush

Regular range

The map shades 1 country with regular records. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

India

About the Palani Laughingthrush

The Palani laughingthrush is a species of laughingthrush endemic to the hills of the Western Ghats south of the Palghat Gap in Southern India. Found in the high montane forests, this grey bibbed, rufous bellied bird with a prominent dark eyestripe and broad white brow was grouped along with the grey-breasted subspecies of the black-chinned laughingthrush and known as the grey-breasted laughingthrush. This species is found in the Palni Hills while another closely related form, the Ashambu laughingthrush with a shorter white brow is found in the high hills south of the Achankovil Gap and was treated as a subspecies. The two forms were together formerly treated as the Kerala laughingthrush.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Ashambu LaughingthrushMontecincla meridionalisThe Ashambu laughingthrush or Travancore laughingthrush is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. Banasura LaughingthrushMontecincla jerdoniThe Banasura laughingthrush is a medium-sized songbird, ranging between 203 and 230 cm in length, and between 36 and 52 g in mass.

Nilgiri LaughingthrushMontecincla cachinnansThis laughingthrush is about 24 cm long with a rufous underside and a dark olive grey upper body.

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