
Photo: (c) Mathieu Soetens, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY
Ianthocincla rufogularis
Rare visitor: recorded only occasionally in this country
The rufous-chinned laughingthrush (Ianthocincla rufogularis) is a bird species in the family Leiothrichidae. It ranges across the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent and some parts of Southeast Asia. Taxonomy The rufous-chinned laughingthrush was described by the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould in 1835 from a specimen obtained in the Himalayas. He coined the binomial name Ianthocincla rufogularis. (Wikipedia, general species account).
The type locality was restricted to the state of Sikkim in northeast India by Stuart Baker in 1920. This laughingthrush was normally placed in the genus Garrulax but following the publication of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study in 2018, the genus Ianthocincla was resurrected and rufous-chinned laughingthrush was returned to its original genus. Six subspecies are recognised: I. r. occidentalis Hartert, 1909 – west Himalayas I.