The Ashambu laughingthrush or Travancore laughingthrush (''Montecincla meridionalis'') 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 lightweig ...

in the family Leiothrichidae. It is found in the Western Ghats in southern

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

and southern

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the

grey-breasted laughingthrush The grey-breasted laughingthrush or Kerala laughingthrush has been split into the following species: * Palani laughingthrush, ''Montecincla fairbanki'' * Ashambu laughingthrush The Ashambu laughingthrush or Travancore laughingthrush (''Monteci ...

. It is closely related to the

Palani laughingthrush The Palani laughingthrush (''Montecincla fairbanki'') 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 bir ...

and can be differentiated from it by its very short white brow that stops before the eye. The species is found in the high hills and is part of a complex of several species which are thought to have speciated by being isolated in the cool tops of the higher hills of southern India as the climate became warmer. Earlier included in other genera, they were placed in a newly established genus in 2017.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q37998303 Ashambu laughingthrush Birds of South India Ashambu laughingthrush