From Opus

Rufous-breasted Laughingthrush
Photo by atanumondal

Masked Laughingthrush
Photo by James Wang

Genus: Garrulax

[edit] Description

This genus contains over 50 species of Laughingthrushes from Asia. These are medium-sized, thrush-like babblers with soft fluffy plumage. They are usually terrestrial. Like other babblers they have short rounded wings. The highest diversity is found in the Himalayas and Southern China.

[edit] Taxonomy

Garrulax is a genus in the Family Timaliidae.
New research showed that this genus is highly polyphyletic and should be split in different genus and re-arranged within the Timaliidae. These new genera would be: Garrulax (sensu stricto), Dryonastes, Melanocichla, Rhinocichla, Grammatoptila, Stactocichla, Leucodioptron, Strophocincla, Pterorhinus, Ianthocincla and Trochalopteron. ^1,3.
However, as Opus is not a taxonomic authority we still follow the traditional systematic.²
The following species would remain in Garrulax after a re-arrangement:

• Rufous-cheeked Laughingthrush (spilt from Grey)
• Grey Laughingthrush
• Black-hooded Laughingthrush
• Cambodian Laughingthrush (split from White-necked)
• White-necked Laughingthrush
• White-crested Laughingthrush
• Black-and-white Laughingthrush (split from White-crested)
• Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush
• Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush
• White-throated Laughingthrush
• Rufous-crowned Laughingthrush (split from White-throated)
• Masked Laughingthrush
• Rufous-fronted Laughingthrush
• Ashy-headed Laughingthrush
• Sunda Laughingthrush

[edit] Reference

1. del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. and Christie, D.A. eds. 2007. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 84-96553-42-6
2. Clements James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019
3. Cibois, A. 2003. Mitochondrial DNA phylogeny of babblers (Timaliidae). In The Auk, January 2003. Downloaded from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3793/is_200301/ai_n9225604 on 4/8/2008