The brown-winged whistling thrush (''Myophonus castaneus''), also known as the Sumatran whistling thrush or chestnut-winged whistling thrush, is a

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

belonging to the

whistling thrush The whistling thrushes comprise a genus ''Myophonus'' (''Myiophoneus'') of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. They are all medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds. They are all brightly coloured species found in India an ...

genus ''Myophonus'' in the family Muscicapidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the island of

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. In the past, it has often been lumped together with the

Javan whistling thrush The Javan whistling thrush (''Myophonus glaucinus'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in Java and Bali. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slop ...

(''M. glaucinus'') and Bornean whistling thrush (''M. borneensis'') as the "Sunda whistling thrush" (''M. glaucinus'') but it is now often regarded as a separate species based on differences in plumage and measurements. It is about 25 centimetres long. The black

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

has an average depth of 7.3 millimetres, slenderer than the bills of the Bornean and Javan whistling thrushes. The legs and feet are dark brown. The adult male has a dark blue head, breast and shoulders with the rest of the plumage being chestnut. The adult female and immature are mostly dull chestnut-brown with a blue patch on the shoulder. The Bornean and Javan whistling thrushes lack any chestnut coloration. It has a loud whistling call and a harsh grating call. It occurs in

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

from 400 to 1500 metres above sea-level. It is usually found near streams and typically keeps to the middle and subcanopy layers of the forest. It is a scarce bird and is believed to be declining as a result of

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

References

* BirdLife International (2007
Species factsheet: ''Myophonus castaneus''.
Downloaded from https://www.webcitation.org/5QE8rvIqH?url=http://www.birdlife.org/ on 2/10/2007. * Collar, N. J. (2004
Species limits in some Indonesian thrushes
''Forktail'', 20: 71–87. * MacKinnon, John & Phillipps, Karen (1993) ''A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali'', Oxford University Press, Oxford.

External links

Oriental Bird Images: Chestnut-winged Whistling-thrush
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1311221 brown-winged whistling thrush Birds of Sumatra brown-winged whistling thrush brown-winged whistling thrush