The variegated laughingthrush (''Trochalopteron variegatum'') is a species of

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 ...

in the 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 fami ...

. It is endemic to the northern regions of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

, primarily the low-to-mid altitudes of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

. It ranges across

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

Description

The variegated laughingthrush is a medium-sized laughingthrush typically 24-16 centimeters in length and weighs 57-79 grams. Both subspecies have a black stripe down the center of the throat and are overall olive and buffy in appearance. The large tail has a gray subterminal band with a white tip. The color of the outer rectrices vary based on the subspecies. ''T. v. variegatum'' has distinctive yellow primary and secondary feathers with cinnamon-tipped greater coverts and black primary coverts. ''T. v. variegatum'' has yellow outer rectrices. The area around the beak is black up until the eye, which is broken with a white eye-ring. Buff area at the base of the mandible fades to whitish. The ''T. v. variegatum'' subspecies has buff forehead with a brownish gray crown. ''T. v. simile'' is similar to ''T. v. variegatum'' except it has gray primary and secondary feathers along with gray outer rectrices. The area around the lower mandible is whiter in this subspecies and the buff on the forehead is more dull.

Gallery

File:TrochalopteronVariegatumGould.jpg, Illustration by J. Gould and W. Hart Variegated Laughing Thrush I IMG 7272.jpg, At Kullu - Manali District of Himachal Pradesh, India Variegated Laughing Thrush It2.jpg, At Kullu - Manali District of Himachal Pradesh, India

References

* BirdLife International 2004
Garrulax variegatus2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Downloaded on 25 July 2007. {{Taxonbar, from1=Q27075533, from2=Q3315597 variegated laughingthrush Birds of Afghanistan Birds of Pakistan Birds of North India Birds of Nepal variegated laughingthrush Taxonomy articles created by Polbot