Masked Laughingthrush

Pterorhinus perspicillatus

A rowdy and sociable inhabitant of gardens, parks, and shrubby thickets, this long-tailed, black-eared bird is unmistakable. Upper body is dark gray overall, with brown primarily on the belly but also with some in the wings. Vent area is a dirty rufous color, often seen as the bird intermittently pumps its tail while foraging. Bold, often foraging out in the open on lawns and field edges, but even when hidden, its harsh chattering will give it away.

Taxonomy

The masked laughingthrush was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus Turdus and coined the binomial name Turdus perspicillatus. The specific epithet perspicillatus is Modern Latin meaning "spectacled". Gmelin based his description on "Le Merle de la Chine" that had been described in 1775 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. A hand-coloured engraving by François-Nicolas Martinet was published to accompany Buffon's text. The type locality is now restricted to Xiamen (formerly Amoy) in the province of Fujian.<p>The masked laughingthrush was formerly placed in the genus Garrulax but following the publication of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the laughingthrushes in 2018, it was moved to the resurrected genus Pterorhinus that had been introduced by the English zoologist Robert Swinhoe in 1868. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

Scientific name
Pterorhinus perspicillatus
Authority
(Gmelin, JF, 1789)
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Leiothrichidae
Genus
Pterorhinus

Range and habitat

Migration
Resident species

Conservation

Population trend
stable

Photos

Distribution

Bird Calls

Start Your Bird Watching Journey

Identify a bird outdoors and keep the field guide close for your next observation.