''Garrulax'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

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 th ...

birds in the laughingthrush family

Leiothrichidae The laughingthrushes are a family, Leiothrichidae, of Old World passerine birds. They are diverse in size and coloration. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The entire fam ...

Taxonomy

The genus ''Garrulax'' was erected by the French naturalist René Lesson in 1831. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

was designated in 1961 as the

rufous-fronted laughingthrush The rufous-fronted laughingthrush (''Garrulax rufifrons'') is a bird species in the family Leiothrichidae. It is endemic to Java, where it occurs in evergreen tropical montane forests at . It feeds on insects and fruit. Description It is in le ...

(''Garrulax rufifrons''). The genus previously included more species. Following the publication of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study in 2018, ''Garrulax '' was split up and species were moved to the resurrected genera '' Ianthocincla'' and ''

Pterorhinus ''Pterorhinus'' is a genus of passerine birds in the laughingthrush family Leiothrichidae. Taxonomy The genus was erected by the English zoologist Robert Swinhoe in 1868 with the plain laughingthrush (''Pterorhinus davidi'') as the type specie ...

''. ''Garrulax'' species are heavily traded as songbirds. A survey of eight bird markets in Indonesia, carried out in 2014–2015, found 615 laughingthrushes of nine species openly for sale. Much of the trade in these species in Indonesia is illegal and is pushing a number of these species towards extinction. The Sumatran Laughingthrush, for example, is in serious decline due to ongoing and uncontrolled illegal trade in bird markets on the islands of Java and Sumatra, and is increasingly found in international trade, though in lower numbers.

Species

The genus contains the following 14 species:

References

* Collar, N. J. & Robson C. 2007. Family Timaliidae (Babblers) pp. 70 – 291 in; del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Christie, D.A. eds. '' Handbook of the Birds of the World'', Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. {{Taxonbar, from=Q644294 Bird genera Leiothrichidae Taxa named by René Lesson