The Nilgiri laughingthrush (Montecincla cachinnans) is a species of laughingthrush endemic to the high elevation areas of the Nilgiris and adjoining hill ranges in Peninsular India. The mostly rufous underparts, olive brown upperparts, a prominent white eyebrow and a black throat make it unmistakable. It is easily detected by its loud series of nasal call notes and can be hard to spot when it is hidden away inside a patch of dense vegetation. The species has a confusing taxonomic history, leading to a range of names. In the past the species was considered to have two subspecies, the nominate form in the Nilgiris (earlier called the black-chinned laughingthrush or rufous-breasted laughingthrush) and jerdoni (which is now treated as a full species, the Banasura laughingthrush) with a grey upper breast and found in the Brahmagiris of Coorg and Banasura range of Wayanad. They are omnivorous, feeding on a range of insects, berries and nectar.
Race jerdoni of the Brahmagiris and adjoining Wayanad
The species was described by the English zoologist Thomas Jerdon in 1839 under the binomial nameCrateroptus cachinnans.[2][3] In 1872 he noted that the form Trochalopteron jerdoni that he had discovered on the peak of Banasura [=Banasore] in Wayanad would likely also occur in Coorg. He added that they were separated by lower hills despite being only about 50 to 60 miles from the western edge of the Nilgiris.[4] The species jerdoni included fairbanki and meridionale (both from south of the Palghat Gap) while cachinnans was kept separate.[5] This treatment of jerdoni and cachinnans as species continued until 2005 when Rasmussen and Anderton grouped the black-chinned forms north of the Palghat Gap into one species with jerdoni of Coorg-Wynaad treated as a subspecies of cachinnans. The wider distribution of the taxon made the older name of "Nilgiri laughing-thrush" inappropriate. The form south of the Palghat gap without a black chin was elevated to a full species, fairbanki with meridionale as a subspecies, and called the Kerala laughingthrush. Stuart Baker in the second edition of the Fauna of British India included a subspecies cinnamomeum described by William Ruxton Davison from two specimens obtained by Atholl Macgregor, British Resident in Travancore, from an unknown location. This is usually not recognized but the description was based on two specimens with the black of the chin and lores replaced by dark brown.[6][7] Stuart Baker used several genera for the south Indian laughingthrushes. Trochalopteron was said to have the nostril visible and not covered by overhanging bristles as in Ianthocincla, the genus in which the Wayanad laughingthrush was placed. Subsequent revision by Ripley and Ali lumped all the south Indian laughingthrushes into the single genus Garrulax. The genus splits were, however, reinstated on the basis of differences in structure and the species was included in a previously erected genus Trochalopteron.[8][9][10][11][12] A detailed phylogenetic study published in 2017 identified that the south Indian species that were included in Trochalopteron were best treated as a sister group of a clade that included Leiothrix, Minla, Heterophasia and Actinodura and they were not closely related to members of Trochalopteron in the strict sense. This led to a need to establish a new genus Montecincla (with the type species being the first described species, Montecincla cachinnans).[13]
This laughingthrush is about 24 cm long with a rufous underside and a dark olive grey upper body. The crown is slaty brown and there is a jagged and broad white supercilium margined with black. The throat, lores and a streak behind the eye are black. The tail is olive brown. The iris is reddish brown and the legs and bill are black. The upper breast is grey in the subspecies jerdoni and can appear somewhat like fairbanki although the throat of the latter is grey and the two do not overlap in range.[7][9][14] It is unmistakable in plumage although at a quick glance it can be mistaken for an Indian scimitar babbler.[15]
Behaviour and ecologyedit
The Nilgiri laughingthrush lives in dense forest patches on the Nilgiri and Wayanad ranges above the elevation of 1,200 m (3,900 ft).[16] It forages along the forest edge singly or in small groups low in the trees and sometimes on the ground. They are active in the early morning and late afternoon and are extremely vocal. While one bird calls in a series of loud ascending and descending nasal notes, another in a nearby bush produces a series of sharp kek notes.[10] They feed on the nectar of Lobelia excelsa and Rhododendron in winter. When Strobilanthes is in bloom, the birds feed on its nectar as well as its petals. They feed on the fruits of Ilex spp., Solanum auriculatum, Eurya japonica, Rhamnus wightii, Pyrus baccata, Rubus spp., Mahonia leschenaultii and Rhodomyrtus tomentosa ("hill guava"). Insects are crushed before swallowing and sometimes battered against a hard substrate. Small tree-frogs are sometimes taken. Large fruits are sometimes held under their foot and torn apart. They tend to forage on the open ground at dawn and dusk and mostly glean from vegetation during the rest of the day.[17]
Typical habitat in the NilgirisA Nilgiri laughingthrush
The Nilgiri laughingthrush nests from February to the beginning of June. The nest is a cup placed at about 1–2 m (3 ft 3 in – 6 ft 7 in) above the ground in a clump of dense undergrowth, often close to a stream or marsh in the edge of a shola. The male as well as the female build the nest. The inside of the cup nest is lined with hair and fine material and nearly 50% of the nest weight is made up of mosses. The eggs are laid within a few days of completing the nest construction, which can take from 5 to 18 days (average of 13 days). Nests built later in the season tend to be constructed more rapidly. The clutch consists of 2 greenish blue eggs with brown blotches and streaks. The adults tear up and destroy the nest after the young birds fledge or if the nest is predated.[18] The eggs are about 2.3 to 2.7 cm (0.92 to 1.08 in) long and 1.9 to 2.0 cm (0.74 to 0.8 in) wide.[19] Incubation begins after the second egg is laid and both parents take turns until the chick hatches on the 16th or 17th day. If one of the eggs fails to hatch, the egg is left alone and not removed as in some bird species. The young are fed with insects during their early stages and berries such as Rubus at a later stage. The faecal sacs produced by the young are swallowed by the parents. The young fledge after 15–18 days but continue to remain nearby for about three weeks. Predators of the eggs and young include the Indian jungle crow and the greater coucal.[20]
The distribution of the species is restricted to a small area which is prone to habitat destruction leading to its status being considered as endangered.[1][16]
^Jerdon, Thomas C. (1839). "Catalogue of the birds of the Peninsula of Indian: Continued". Madras Journal of Literature and Science. 10: 234-269 [255-256 Plate 7].
^Mayr, Ernst; Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, eds. (1964). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 370.
^Jerdon, TC (1872). "Supplementary Notes to "The Birds of India."". Ibis. 6 (3): 307–308. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1872.tb08412.x.
^Deignan, HG; Paynter RA Jr.; Ripley, SD (1964). Check-list of birds of the World. Volume 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. pp. 370–371.
^ abAli, S & SD Ripley (1996). Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan. Volume 7. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 40–41.
^Luo, X.; Qu, Y. H.; Han, L. X.; Li, S. H. & Lei, F. M. (2009). "A phylogenetic analysis of laughingthrushes (Timaliidae: Garrulax) and allies based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences". Zoologica Scripta. 38: 9–22. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2008.00355.x. S2CID 83800343.
^Moyle, RG; Andersen, MJ; Oliveros, CH; Steinheimer, FD; Reddy, S (2012). "Phylogeny and Biogeography of the Core Babblers (Aves: Timaliidae)". Systematic Biology. 61 (4): 631–651. doi:10.1093/sysbio/sys027. PMID 22328569.
^Robin, V.V.; Vishnudas, C. K.; Gupta, Pooja; Rheindt, Frank E.; Hooper, Daniel M.; Ramakrishnan, Uma; Reddy, Sushma (2017). "Two new genera of songbirds represent endemic radiations from the Shola Sky Islands of the Western Ghats, India". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 17 (1): 31. doi:10.1186/s12862-017-0882-6. PMC5259981. PMID 28114902.
^Oates, EW (1889). The Fauna of British India. Birds. Volume 1. London: Taylor and Francis. pp. 97–99.
^Jerdon, TC (1863). The Birds of India. Volume 2. Part 1. Calcutta: Military Orphan Press. pp. 48–49.
^ abZarri AA, Rahmani AR, Singh A, Kushwaha SP (2008). "Habitat suitability assessment for the endangered Nilgiri Laughingthrush : A multiple logistic regression approach". Current Science. 94 (11): 1487–1494.
^Islam, MA (1987). "Food and feeding habits of the South Indian laughing thrushes Garrulax cachinnans and Garrulax jerdoni (Aves:Muscicapidae)". Bangladesh Journal of Zoology. 15 (2): 197–204.
^Islam, M.A. (1989). "Nest destruction and cannibalistic behaviour of Laughing Thrushes, Garrulax spp. (Aves: Muscicapidae)". Bangladesh Journal of Zoology. 17 (1): 15–17.
^Hume, A. O. (1889). The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds. Vol. Volume 1 (Second ed.). London: R. H. Porter. pp. 62–64.
^Islam, M.A. (1994). "Breeding habits of the Nilgiri Laughing Thrush Garrulax cachinnans (Jerdon)". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 91 (1): 16–28.
External linksedit
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April 10, 2024
nilgiri, laughingthrush, montecincla, cachinnans, species, laughingthrush, endemic, high, elevation, areas, nilgiris, adjoining, hill, ranges, peninsular, india, mostly, rufous, underparts, olive, brown, upperparts, prominent, white, eyebrow, black, throat, ma. The Nilgiri laughingthrush Montecincla cachinnans is a species of laughingthrush endemic to the high elevation areas of the Nilgiris and adjoining hill ranges in Peninsular India The mostly rufous underparts olive brown upperparts a prominent white eyebrow and a black throat make it unmistakable It is easily detected by its loud series of nasal call notes and can be hard to spot when it is hidden away inside a patch of dense vegetation The species has a confusing taxonomic history leading to a range of names In the past the species was considered to have two subspecies the nominate form in the Nilgiris earlier called the black chinned laughingthrush or rufous breasted laughingthrush and jerdoni which is now treated as a full species the Banasura laughingthrush with a grey upper breast and found in the Brahmagiris of Coorg and Banasura range of Wayanad They are omnivorous feeding on a range of insects berries and nectar Nilgiri laughingthrush source source CallsConservation statusEndangered IUCN 3 1 1 Scientific classificationDomain EukaryotaKingdom AnimaliaPhylum ChordataClass AvesOrder PasseriformesFamily LeiothrichidaeGenus MontecinclaSpecies M cachinnansBinomial nameMontecincla cachinnans Jerdon 1839 SynonymsGarrulax cachinnansCrateropus cachinnans protonym Contents 1 Taxonomy 2 Description 3 Behaviour and ecology 4 References 5 External linksTaxonomy edit nbsp Race jerdoni of the Brahmagiris and adjoining WayanadThe species was described by the English zoologist Thomas Jerdon in 1839 under the binomial name Crateroptus cachinnans 2 3 In 1872 he noted that the form Trochalopteron jerdoni that he had discovered on the peak of Banasura Banasore in Wayanad would likely also occur in Coorg He added that they were separated by lower hills despite being only about 50 to 60 miles from the western edge of the Nilgiris 4 The species jerdoni included fairbanki and meridionale both from south of the Palghat Gap while cachinnans was kept separate 5 This treatment of jerdoni and cachinnans as species continued until 2005 when Rasmussen and Anderton grouped the black chinned forms north of the Palghat Gap into one species with jerdoni of Coorg Wynaad treated as a subspecies of cachinnans The wider distribution of the taxon made the older name of Nilgiri laughing thrush inappropriate The form south of the Palghat gap without a black chin was elevated to a full species fairbanki with meridionale as a subspecies and called the Kerala laughingthrush Stuart Baker in the second edition of the Fauna of British India included a subspecies cinnamomeum described by William Ruxton Davison from two specimens obtained by Atholl Macgregor British Resident in Travancore from an unknown location This is usually not recognized but the description was based on two specimens with the black of the chin and lores replaced by dark brown 6 7 Stuart Baker used several genera for the south Indian laughingthrushes Trochalopteron was said to have the nostril visible and not covered by overhanging bristles as in Ianthocincla the genus in which the Wayanad laughingthrush was placed Subsequent revision by Ripley and Ali lumped all the south Indian laughingthrushes into the single genus Garrulax The genus splits were however reinstated on the basis of differences in structure and the species was included in a previously erected genus Trochalopteron 8 9 10 11 12 A detailed phylogenetic study published in 2017 identified that the south Indian species that were included in Trochalopteron were best treated as a sister group of a clade that included Leiothrix Minla Heterophasia and Actinodura and they were not closely related to members of Trochalopteron in the strict sense This led to a need to establish a new genus Montecincla with the type species being the first described species Montecincla cachinnans 13 Description edit nbsp Illustration of G c jerdoni by Joseph SmitThis laughingthrush is about 24 cm long with a rufous underside and a dark olive grey upper body The crown is slaty brown and there is a jagged and broad white supercilium margined with black The throat lores and a streak behind the eye are black The tail is olive brown The iris is reddish brown and the legs and bill are black The upper breast is grey in the subspecies jerdoni and can appear somewhat like fairbanki although the throat of the latter is grey and the two do not overlap in range 7 9 14 It is unmistakable in plumage although at a quick glance it can be mistaken for an Indian scimitar babbler 15 Behaviour and ecology editThe Nilgiri laughingthrush lives in dense forest patches on the Nilgiri and Wayanad ranges above the elevation of 1 200 m 3 900 ft 16 It forages along the forest edge singly or in small groups low in the trees and sometimes on the ground They are active in the early morning and late afternoon and are extremely vocal While one bird calls in a series of loud ascending and descending nasal notes another in a nearby bush produces a series of sharp kek notes 10 They feed on the nectar of Lobelia excelsa and Rhododendron in winter When Strobilanthes is in bloom the birds feed on its nectar as well as its petals They feed on the fruits of Ilex spp Solanum auriculatum Eurya japonica Rhamnus wightii Pyrus baccata Rubus spp Mahonia leschenaultii and Rhodomyrtus tomentosa hill guava Insects are crushed before swallowing and sometimes battered against a hard substrate Small tree frogs are sometimes taken Large fruits are sometimes held under their foot and torn apart They tend to forage on the open ground at dawn and dusk and mostly glean from vegetation during the rest of the day 17 nbsp Typical habitat in the Nilgiris nbsp A Nilgiri laughingthrushThe Nilgiri laughingthrush nests from February to the beginning of June The nest is a cup placed at about 1 2 m 3 ft 3 in 6 ft 7 in above the ground in a clump of dense undergrowth often close to a stream or marsh in the edge of a shola The male as well as the female build the nest The inside of the cup nest is lined with hair and fine material and nearly 50 of the nest weight is made up of mosses The eggs are laid within a few days of completing the nest construction which can take from 5 to 18 days average of 13 days Nests built later in the season tend to be constructed more rapidly The clutch consists of 2 greenish blue eggs with brown blotches and streaks The adults tear up and destroy the nest after the young birds fledge or if the nest is predated 18 The eggs are about 2 3 to 2 7 cm 0 92 to 1 08 in long and 1 9 to 2 0 cm 0 74 to 0 8 in wide 19 Incubation begins after the second egg is laid and both parents take turns until the chick hatches on the 16th or 17th day If one of the eggs fails to hatch the egg is left alone and not removed as in some bird species The young are fed with insects during their early stages and berries such as Rubus at a later stage The faecal sacs produced by the young are swallowed by the parents The young fledge after 15 18 days but continue to remain nearby for about three weeks Predators of the eggs and young include the Indian jungle crow and the greater coucal 20 The distribution of the species is restricted to a small area which is prone to habitat destruction leading to its status being considered as endangered 1 16 References edit a b BirdLife International 2017 Strophocincla cachinnans IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017 e T103874076A111175518 Retrieved 6 October 2021 Jerdon Thomas C 1839 Catalogue of the birds of the Peninsula of Indian Continued Madras Journal of Literature and Science 10 234 269 255 256 Plate 7 Mayr Ernst Paynter Raymond A Jr eds 1964 Check list of Birds of the World Vol 10 Cambridge Massachusetts Museum of Comparative Zoology p 370 Jerdon TC 1872 Supplementary Notes to The Birds of India Ibis 6 3 307 308 doi 10 1111 j 1474 919X 1872 tb08412 x Deignan HG Paynter RA Jr Ripley SD 1964 Check list of birds of the World Volume 10 Cambridge Massachusetts Museum of Comparative Zoology pp 370 371 Davison WR 1886 Letters Announcements amp c Ibis 28 2 203 205 doi 10 1111 j 1474 919X 1886 tb06284 x a b Baker ECS 1922 The Fauna of British India Birds Volume 1 2nd ed London Taylor and Francis pp 176 177 Baker ECS 1923 A Hand list of genera and species of birds of the Indian Empire Bombay Natural History Society p 17 a b Rasmussen P C amp Anderton J C 2005 Birds of South Asia The Ripley Guide Volume 2 Smithsonian Institution and Lynx edicions pp 414 415 a b Ali S amp SD Ripley 1996 Handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan Volume 7 New Delhi Oxford University Press pp 40 41 Luo X Qu Y H Han L X Li S H amp Lei F M 2009 A phylogenetic analysis of laughingthrushes Timaliidae Garrulax and allies based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences Zoologica Scripta 38 9 22 doi 10 1111 j 1463 6409 2008 00355 x S2CID 83800343 Moyle RG Andersen MJ Oliveros CH Steinheimer FD Reddy S 2012 Phylogeny and Biogeography of the Core Babblers Aves Timaliidae Systematic Biology 61 4 631 651 doi 10 1093 sysbio sys027 PMID 22328569 Robin V V Vishnudas C K Gupta Pooja Rheindt Frank E Hooper Daniel M Ramakrishnan Uma Reddy Sushma 2017 Two new genera of songbirds represent endemic radiations from the Shola Sky Islands of the Western Ghats India BMC Evolutionary Biology 17 1 31 doi 10 1186 s12862 017 0882 6 PMC 5259981 PMID 28114902 Oates EW 1889 The Fauna of British India Birds Volume 1 London Taylor and Francis pp 97 99 Jerdon TC 1863 The Birds of India Volume 2 Part 1 Calcutta Military Orphan Press pp 48 49 a b Zarri AA Rahmani AR Singh A Kushwaha SP 2008 Habitat suitability assessment for the endangered Nilgiri Laughingthrush A multiple logistic regression approach Current Science 94 11 1487 1494 Islam MA 1987 Food and feeding habits of the South Indian laughing thrushes Garrulax cachinnans and Garrulax jerdoni Aves Muscicapidae Bangladesh Journal of Zoology 15 2 197 204 Islam M A 1989 Nest destruction and cannibalistic behaviour of Laughing Thrushes Garrulax spp Aves Muscicapidae Bangladesh Journal of Zoology 17 1 15 17 Hume A O 1889 The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds Vol Volume 1 Second ed London R H Porter pp 62 64 Islam M A 1994 Breeding habits of the Nilgiri Laughing Thrush Garrulax cachinnans Jerdon Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 91 1 16 28 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Montecincla cachinnans Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Nilgiri laughingthrush amp oldid 1214080922, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
